“Help from Business Wales AGP has been critical to our progression and growth.”
The craft drinks market is a rapidly growing one. All kinds of beverages are being produced by brewers and distillers with a drive to deliver quality drinks with an emphasis on provenance, innovation and flavour.
In The Welsh Wind, founded by Alex Jungmayr and Ellen Wakelam, is taking advantage of the gin trend, producing custom-branded spirits for dozens of clients.
Here, Ellen Wakelam explains the story of the company and reveals tips for other entrepreneurs.
Tell us about In The Welsh Wind.
Our story started when we met, but I don’t think either of us thought we’d go on an incredible business journey together, inspired by a wonderful trip around Wales on foot.
We met in Llangrannog. I was living there, and Alex’s parents had recently moved to the village. But we didn’t stay around for long and moved to England together before we came back to west Wales. We realised it’s where we wanted to live, and where we belong.
While we knew we wanted to be together, we weren’t so clear on what we wanted to do. So we took three months out to walk around Wales. It was a life-changing experience for us both. In the quietude and stillness of that adventure, our commitment to one another was cemented, and we knew we wanted to create a life and a business that would keep us on the Welsh coast. The question now was what?
A couple of years later on a trip to Scotland, we came across the craft gin distilleries of the Highlands. We came back home determined to build a unique Welsh distillery.
We’ve created a business founded on ideals we still follow. It’s seen us establish a company which can deliver technical, branding and marketing support, flavour development, distillation, and hand bottling and labelling. Clients come to us with an idea and take away a product ready for market.
We now produce 30 custom-branded spirits – among them our multi-award-winning Tenby gin, and we also make ex-England cricketer Michael Vaughan’s Declaration Gin, which has won plenty of admirers.
People can also come into the distillery and create their own bottle of gin in one of the custom-built copper pot mini stills we have in our gin lab.
We’re also launching a ‘signature style’, bringing together everything we’ve learned to develop our own gin, which we think is going to be an outstanding product.
We’re now building on some really exciting moves for our company. We have acquired the Eccentric Gin company and moved production to West Wales from Caerphilly. The range has been rebranded and is soon to be relaunched.
But that’s not it! We’re not confining ourselves to gin, because we’ve now set our sights on whisky. We want to produce a whisky which is purely Welsh, and we don’t think this has been done before. Not only will we use Welsh-grown barley, but every stage of the process will take place in Wales – including malting.
Since the COVID-19 crisis, our efforts haven’t just been on producing quality drinks. It was clear that we were ideally placed to produce a World Health Organisation formulation hand sanitiser. We’ve made nearly 10,000 litres which have gone out to help those most vulnerable and key workers. We’ve supported doctors’ surgeries, hospital wards, the RLNI, coastguard, police, care homes, pharmacies – the list goes on.
All this feels a long way from where we started – in a derelict cowshed with a £25,000 loan. It didn’t take long before we’d outgrown our first home and we secured the lease of the Gogerddan Arms at Tan y Groes, north of Cardigan, in March 2019.
We now have four full-time members of staff, including the two of us, but we’re in the process of developing an apprenticeship scheme and work experience package. We want to provide opportunities for upskilling in an area where permanent skilled work can be hard to come by.
What are your proudest moments in business so far?
We founded In the Welsh Wind Distillery in January 2018, in a derelict cowshed with a £25,000 loan to start us off.
Having renovated the cowshed, we quickly began to outgrow it, and in March 2019 were able to secure a lease with the option to purchase on the Gogerddan Arms on the A487 coast road between Aberystwyth and Haverfordwest. It’s the perfect spot.
To secure the purchase and continue with essential renovations we created a self-generated lending opportunity, inviting investment from family and friends of the distillery in return for 100% return over an indefinite period based on a percentage of profit. This offering has been incredibly well-received, and we raised substantial investment.
A loan from the Development Bank of Wales was secured so we could continue with renovations, the remainder dependent on achieving performance targets over an agreed period. Hitting those targets, we achieved the remainder of the loan at the end of March 2020.
These two financial initiatives meant we could exercise the option to purchase the Gogerddan Arms and secure the home for our business. Not only is this a source of pride, but it’s massively exciting for us!
If you were starting again, what would you do differently?
If we’d had access to specific drinks industry information on legality, HMRC and customs we could have avoided some of the small mistakes we did initially make. But we’re using that learning to form a service to new customers, providing them with the information we didn’t have.
How has support from Business Wales AGP helped your business?
We’ve had support from Business Wales AGP in a range of areas, and they have been hugely beneficial to our progression and our rapid growth.
We’ve had detailed business planning and financial support, with access to finance experts and HR support with contracts of employment. We have also benefited from marketing and branding diagnostics.
Our relationship manager’s input has always been appreciated and has been key to accessing the support that is right for our growth.
We have been to a number of the masterclasses held by Business Wales AGP and have always come back with new knowledge and renewed enthusiasm to improve our business. We’ve also been on several social media and advertising courses with Superfast Business Wales.
What advice and guidance would you give other businesses starting out?
● Research and ask as many people as you can about your plan to gain their feedback.
● Keep your eyes and ears well and truly open.
● It is only with humility that you will surround yourself with the right people to make a success of your venture.
For more information on In The Welsh Wind, visit here.
Further information on the Business Wales Accelerated Growth Programme