9 minute read
IN THE PINK
John Reynolds, Niall O'Dwyer, Pippa O'Connor, Shane Davey - Sugarloaf Beverages
In the
AS ISTIL 38 BEGINS TO MAKE ITS MARK, SUGARLOAF BEVERAGES MD SHANE DAVEY TALKS ABOUT THE CHALLENGES OF LAUNCHING A NEW VODKA IN THE IRISH MARKET
CONGRATULATIONS ON THE LAUNCH OF ISTIL 38. WHERE DID THE IDEA FOR THE VODKA COME FROM?
It was an idea that I had years ago. My background is in Irish Distillers and Diageo and when I worked in Diageo, we launched Gordon’s Pink Gin which was obviously very successful. I remember working in Irish Distillers and saying, there’s no reason why a pink vodka wouldn’t work. It’s slightly sweeter, it's a little bit more feminine and it looks good in the glass. Irish Distillers is owned by Pernod Ricard and new product development is around Absolut Vodka so it wasn’t a goer, although at the time I remember it was considered a good idea. It was always in the back of my mind. During Covid, I went for a walk with Niall O'Dwyer and we were talking about the huge demand for Irish products and for the Irish gin and whiskey that we sell and yet we’ve nothing in the vodka category, which is the biggest selling category in Ireland. From that conversation, it just ballooned.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
I was working at Irish Distillers at the time and mindful of any conflict of interest so John Reynolds and Niall O'Dwyer, now co-directors at Sugarloaf Beverages, took the idea and ran with it. I helped them at weekends, knowing that my role at Irish Distillers was probably going to change in the near future. That was well over a year ago and since then, it’s been all about getting the design and the name right. The name went
through a number of iterations but after about three months, we trademarked the name istil 38 in Ireland, England, Europe and the US. Finding the liquid we wanted was the next piece of the puzzle. We blind-tasted hundreds of vodkas, both premium and super premium and the best one in our opinion was a distilled vodka; the distillation process in the copper pot still strips out the harsher taste. So we went down the route of making our vodka just as good, if not better, than the one that we rated the best.
DID YOU GET MUCH FEEDBACK FROM THE INDUSTRY?
Yes, we worked with about three of the country’s best known bartenders to get the liquid right. The aim was to create a vodka that bartenders would enjoy and get behind. After that, it was all about branding. From all the market research we conducted, we found that vodka is a female category. When we asked through our market research questions like, if your vodka was a person who would it be, Pippa O’Connor’s name kept coming up. So we approached her and she obviously liked the concept enough that she came back two days later and said look, I love your idea but I don't really do anything that I'm not involved in. She ended up buying into the brand, which wasn't something we expected but were delighted with.
HOW MUCH INPUT DID PIPPA HAVE?
She’s the creative director and has been instrumental when it comes to getting the liquid to particular events or instructing us to target certain social media influencers or outlets. Her investment was of course great, but her advice around where to go with the brand has been invaluable.
WHAT MAKES ISTIL 38 STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD?
It’s hand crafted, it's super smooth and if you blind test istil 38 with any other vodkas on the market, we believe it stands up. As far as we're concerned, it's the best. Compared to the market leaders, it costs three to four times more to make istil 38 and that’s because it’s small batch. We’re not mass producing it so it’s a premium product and it also costs that bit more. I think once we get it out there a bit more on social media and advertising and get liquid on lips, people will appreciate it and be willing to pay the slight premium.
Shane Davey
AT THE MOMENT THERE ARE THREE VARIANTS OF THE PRODUCT - ORIGINAL, VANILLA AND PINK BERRIES. ARE THERE PLANS TO LAUNCH MORE?
Long-term there are plans to launch new variants. In the next year to two years though, we’re concentrating on making istil 38 the bestselling Irish vodka on the market. That isn’t actually a particularly huge ambition, as 99% of the vodkas on the market are foreign. Once we achieve that, we’d like to go abroad and be able to say to all the Irish bars, we're the bestselling Irish vodka in Ireland and if you're a real Irish bar, you really should be supporting Irish brands. Once we achieve those milestones, we’ll start looking at maybe unusual and more adult flavours and once we get them exactly right, we’ll launch them. We launched our vanilla vodka two months after we launched the other flavours as we weren't 100% satisfied with it. We are so pedantic about the liquid, so we delayed it until we got the best possible recipe. Now, we feel that it’s so good and so vanilla-y that if you’re making an Espresso Martini, you don’t actually need Kahlua or Tia Maria. Bartenders love it and that’s the type of vodka we wanted to create. A brand grows through advocacy and a nity with the people who know what they’re talking about and in this case, the real experts are the bartenders.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE OUT OF THE THREE FLAVOURS?
I like the pink, but I like it with a citrus tonic. That’s not something we came up with by the way, a bartender came up with that combination. It's very adult tasting; we didn't want to go down the sweet strawberry type route. From the o , we were aiming for an adult tasting drink and that’s what we have achieved. The tonic that I think works best is Poachers Citrus Tonic. That’s the tonic that the bartender, Ronan Rogerson used and I think it’s phenomenal.
WAS LEAVING IRISH DISTILLERS AND PURSUING YOUR IDEA A DAUNTING PROSPECT?
Yes! I have a wife and three kids so this was absolutely the scariest thing I've ever done. Doing it completely by myself is a scary thought and that’s probably why I had John, Niall and Pippa there with me. In saying that, it still keeps me awake some nights. My brain never shuts o , but I think that’s what happens when you launch your own business. I’ve figured out that sleeping with a notebook beside my bed helps. When I wake up at 6am, I’ll either get up and do stu or I’ll write all my ideas down and that way my brain will shut down a bit and let me get some sleep. It’s a lonely place to be sometimes, but also very enjoyable and fastmoving. In a large company, you have to get through several layers before you get the answer you need. Now, the buck stops with me.
THERE MUST BE SOME GRATIFICATION THERE TOO; ISTIL 38 IS AVAILABLE IN OVER 200 PUBS AND STOCKED IN INDEPENDENT OFF-LICENCES AS WELL AS O'BRIENS
There is. It’s daunting but I’m glad I did it. I think that if I hadn't gone out on my own, I would have always regretted it. it’s also been interesting to learn how to do accounts payable, accounts receivable, how to deal with logistics and with revenue. It takes time to learn all this stu , but I’m getting there.
With a rich heritage dating back to 1779, PADDY owes its name to the legendary distillery owes its name to the legendary distillery salesman, Paddy Flaherty.
Famed throughout his native county Cork for buying rounds of his favourite tipple, he became so synonymous with the whiskey he sold, that in 1913 the distillery owners paid him the ultimate tribute by renaming the whiskey ‘PADDY’ in his honour.
Made from a unique blend of pot still, malt and grain whiskeys, PADDY is a soft and light whiskey. Enjoy it neat, on the rocks or mixed.
For more details on upcoming events see: @PaddyIrishWhiskeyIreland @PaddyWhiskeyIreland
Ginger Paddy Ingredients • 35.5ml PADDY Whiskey • Ginger Ale • Served over Ice with • a slice of lemon
Paddy Sour
Ingredients • 50mls PADDY • 25mls Lemon • 25mls Sugar (whites) • Garnish with a couple • of drops of bitters
Irish Coffee Ingredients • 35.5ml PADDY Whiskey • 1 teaspoon of sugar • 1 cup of freshly • • • brewed coffee Top with lightly whipped cream Garnish with grated nutmeg and dark chocolate
