For its first outing of the year, the Business of Spirits team headed to Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University’s International Centre for Brewing and Distilling.
The Business of Spirits is a day long course created by the livery to educate a variety of audiences about the drinks industry and how it works. This session saw a team led by Master Nick Carr and Past Master Richard Watling pass on collective decades of knowledge to brewing and distilling students.
The Master and Past Master were joined by Liverymen Alex Oldroyd, Henri Sizaret, Abhi Banik and Jerry Riley for a day covering topics from brand equity to pricing, segmentation, building and growing a distillery, and innovation. A total of 36 students from the ICBD as well as staff and guests attended, with questions from the audience extending the traditional end-of-day panel session, and leading into interesting post-event discussions in the bar afterwards.
Past Master Watling summed up the day:
‘It is always a pleasure to work with keen students of distilled spirits to introduce them to the art of brand building. The ICBD once more filled the hall with a highly engaged group learning how brand equity is created and measured with numerous examples of great brand development. The intent is to enable those entering the industry to participate quickly in cross functional management with a good understanding of techniques and language. Once more the Distillers put on an excellent event with great feedback and interest.’
The feedback from attendees was very positive with useful takeaways for the Business of Spirits team, and included comments such as:
‘A great day of learning.’
‘Great depth and information.’
‘Really good, very interesting.’
‘As a mature student, events like this didn’t happen in “those days”. Really valuable,’
Many thanks to ICBD director Professor Dawn Maskell, and her colleagues Professor Annie Hill and Assistant Professor Matthew Pauley for pulling things together and ensuring the day went smoothly, ably assisted by MC Jerry Riley.
Along with the course itself, the Business of Spirits presenters also headed to Port of Leith to learn more about the innovative vertical whisky distillery, perched on the water’s edge overlooking the Royal Yacht Britannia. Hosted by co-founder Ian Stirling, they were shown how it’s possible to fit the entirety of a modern distillery into a tiny footprint, albeit one with many floors – our advice when visiting: don’t look down through the mesh floor if you are not a fan of heights. Many thanks to Ian and his team for the tour.
The next Business of Spirits is on 8 May 2025 at the WSET School in Bermondsey, presenting the course to our colleagues in The Gin Guild. We have a few spaces open for liverymen to attend – if you are interested, please email business development director Clive Bairsto, clive.bairsto@distillers.org.uk, for more details.
