Independent distillery walks to talk by encouraging graduate intrapreneurship
Scotland’s most northerly mainland distillery, Dunnet Bay Distillers, has announced that its Rock Rose Smoked Orange Gin expression developed by graduate employee, is now part of the core gin range.
The sell-out new Rock Rose Gin expression was piloted in the summer as a limited-edition and developed by graduate employee Craig Chambers. The intrapreneurship demonstrates that great things happen when companies empower their employees to share ideas and bring them to life.
The distillery, set up in 2012 by founders Claire and Martin Murray is a family-owned company with environmental and social sustainability at the heart of their business.
Chambers, a recent Brewing & Distilling graduate, had worked with the Distillers on and off since he was a teenager. The local resident, from Thurso, has worked part-time in various aspects of the business, from bottling to tour guides, to sales. As part of a full-time graduate placement scheme, he returned to the company where he was invited by co-founder Martin Murray, the Master Distiller, to come up with an entirely new gin expression. The company is thrilled with the resulting new gin expression.
Chambers remarked that he has “a passion for smoky, peaty whiskies and so it was a natural development to consider a smoky gin”. The distilling enthusiast will travel to Patagonia this Autumn to expand his experience by working for a whisky distillery.
“I’ve got Martin and Claire to thank for building my understanding of how the business runs and then and my university tutors to thank for inspiring me to pursue this as a career. Martin and Claire are an inspiration,” said Chambers.
Martin Murray commented: “Craig has done a great job since he came in as a distiller and this gin is a cracker. It’s a flavour profile that he identified as being missing from our range and he’s delivered a gin perfectly in balance.
“We’re proud as a business of the opportunities we’ve given people and there will be more to come with our future whisky distillery.”
The Rock Rose Gin collection is available in some Sainsbury’s, through online retailers and direct from the distillery.
