UK Distillers: Why not Branch Out to the EU?
When Brexit happened many distillers in the UK gave up on their plans to introduce their spirits on the European market. If you are not already in the portfolio of a big (and expensive) distributor getting your gin or whisky out there seemed almost impossible. But not if you have an iStill. As always we want to make distilling easy and we've got you covered.
When he's not teaching an iStill University Course, Sebastiaan Smits is managing the Loki Distillery in The Netherlands:
"Loki was founded to provide more service to iStill customers. On the two iStill 2000 NextGens that we have here, we can produce any spirit with the exact same taste profile and quality as on any other iStill around the world. We have customers from all over the world. Sometimes they need more capacity or they are waiting for the permits for their own distillery. We can provide them with the gin, rum or brandy they want to produce and when they are ready to start distilling themselves, the transition is seamless. All thanks to the unique control that you get with an iStill."
For UK customers there's an extra benefit: "When we produce the spirits here at Loki they're already on the EU market. So there no hassle about import licenses and excise duty. It's like you have your own distillery on the mainland."
One of Loki's many happy customers is Vintersol Distillery from Londonheir aquavit proved some popular in Scandinavion countries that they wanted to branch out. Loki produced 2000 bottles of their aquavit no. 1 for the European market. Sasha Bladt-Cohen, CEO of Vintersol Distillery in London, said “We worked with Loki to produce our award-winning Aquavit in the Netherlands for distribution across Scandinavia. As a UK-based distillery, this allowed us to get around the massive hassle, time and expense (including import duties and transport costs) of producing in the U.K. and then exporting to Europe. It has enabled us to enter markets that would be difficult, or even impossible, for a small craft distillery such as Vintersol.”
The aquavit is now in Denmark, as Loki and iStill partnered up with the European distribution platform BeMakers. According to Sebastiaan it a logical step in the process for craft distillers: "We produce your bottles and BeMakers takes care of distribution and excise duties. That way you as a craft distiller can focus on your recipes, your marketing and your sales."
Loki is the first step in what Odin calls Portfolio Distilling: "In the future there should be a Loki Distillery on every continent, so craft distillers can work worldwide. It this day and age it makes no sense to ship water and glass all around the globe, when with the iStill technology we can now produce the same quality craft product locally."
On the Craft Distillers Seminar in November in Amsterdam these plans for a worldwide network of iStill distilleries will be discussed further. More information can be found on www.craftdistillersseminar.com.
In the mean time the Loki Distillery is ready to help you get your spirits onto the European market. You can reach out to Sebastiaan at info@lokidistillery.nl for more information.
