Today’s guest is Dave Thompson, Managing Director and Co-founder at Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery. This interview follows their journey to embrace the DTC (direct to consumer) model as they produce and launch Filey Bay, the first ever single malt whisky both made in, and of, Yorkshire. 

Find out how they built a loyal following and a standout ‘field-to-bottle’ product made with 100% home grown barley, spring water from a source on their farm, an instinctive approach to distilling, all coming together to produce something unique to the region of their home near Filey, on the Yorkshire Coast. 

David speaks with great advice for any British-made or UK brand wanting to stand out in the crowd. 

In this episode, we chat with David about;

• The challenges of starting something new and how they diversified from a farming background
• How online sales kept the business strong during the first lockdown of 2020 after closing the doors to their walk-in visitor attraction and distillery tours
• The importance of understanding your customer
• Why good design is important
• Positioning the brand to a larger demographic of new enthusiasts outside of (and this is said in the politest possible sense) the sophisticated ‘whiskey nerds’   
• The innovative way of using a balloting system to allocate their product  

This very relatable conversation is full of insight for those looking for an alternative to the traditional distributor model and building direct relationships with their consumers for the future.

Here’s to another exciting and emerging  British brand. 

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