Sometimes, I sit and write this letter in a surprisingly short amount of time, it just seems to flow, other years… not so much. This year is a not so much year.
I desperately want to lay into politicians and their inability to make real and useful changes; I most desperately want them to look at their own backyard and wonder why they need 34% more civil servants (that’s an additional 200k people!!!) today than in 2016. We do, after all, have computers that are rather faster and better than we had back then to do the form filling, and we definitely have less chance of getting a person to answer our calls.
Whilst lining their own nests, they have decided to un-line yours, and from my point of view, this is not a naturally super way to encourage growth, which they keep harping on about. Rant over.
2024 has been an extraordinary year for The English Whisky Co. The year started slowly with sales not quite hitting the hoped-for heights we so optimistically set, but just as frowns were developing into permanent scowls, one of our core range of whiskies came to the rescue by winning one of the most prestigious awards in the world of whisky. The English Sherry Cask Matured was crowned the World’s Best Single Malt. What a magnificent way to remove frowns and lighten the mood. Sales blossomed, staff cheered up, and the marketing team got busy. From that point on, 2024 just flew by in a blur.
I have the absolute luxury of leaving all the hard work to Mike, Lee and Katy and instead spend my days trying to look busy, but in reality, I’m just pondering the next useful thing I can do to make their lives a little easier. So, after a good day of said pondering, I green-lighted Warehouse 5. Our biggest and best yet (well, biggest anyway). This new warehouse will allow us to mature over twelve thousand casks on-site – this is a lot. A typical cask holds about 300 bottles of whisky, so at any time, we might have nearly 4 million bottles of whisky maturing on site, which should keep us going for a while. The new warehouse will be trialling new forms of dunnage (the method of holding a cask to make sure it doesn’t roll away) and will, I believe, make work easier and smarter on-site. Let’s hope so, as the shed is now built.
The Grain Kitchen (our distillery bistro) has been open under new operators for a year now, and they are so good at what they do. The food is delicious, the staff are friendly, and the place is busy – good for them and good for us; you should visit.
The other momentous change this year has been the total revamp of our distillery shop. Only a year ago, the offering was pretty much limited to whisky (very good whisky 😊), glassware and books. The green light was given to transform the offering, and now we have a mixture of whisky, homewares (to those of you like me who weren’t sure – this is big matches, smelly candles, lovely rugs, funny cards, super chocolate etc etc), lovely food offerings, more but improved glassware and lots more. Oh, including super fancy tins of tea – which are incredibly popular; you should visit!
We have also revamped the conference facilities; they got air conditioning, a new paint job, a wall of casks and some comfy chairs – all of which have proved so popular that we now employ someone just to deal with events – or rather she sells the space and the existing team, who gladly are very busy, have to look after all the extra visitors for events.
Whilst I get the job of saying yes to various projects, it is Katy who suggests quite a lot of them in a way that sometimes I am not even aware I have agreed to, but this appears to be working as the distillery is busy and lively and most importantly profitable this year – phew.
Apparently, I am meant to be signing off on a kid’s playground so that mothers (and of course fathers, grandparents and anyone else roped into being out with their kids) can eat in peace, but at the current rate, extra car parking may have to come first.
Away from the Distillery, we have attended more events than ever, have poured more whisky for showgoers than ever and spread the word. Next year, we will continue this and, hopefully in the spring, will publish a list of where we will be for those of you who can’t get to Norfolk (no passport needed, and the gate on the A11 remains open most of the time).
Away from our green and pleasant land, exports have gone well. I was even tempted into jumping on a plane or two to visit India to see whether they like whisky – yes, they do, a lot. Sadly, their government chooses to levy very large tax rates on the import and sale of whisky, so for now, our customers are likely to be the 1% of the 1%… but that is still a lot of whisky-loving Indian people. Let’s hope it is a marketplace that works, and we make more lifelong friends in the industry.
As always, a huge thank you to my wonderful team and an even bigger thank you to you all for supporting us on our journey. Without your support, we wouldn’t exist. A little teaser for 2025, we turned 18 earlier this year, which should mean we have some fun releases in the pipeline.
Amazing, after my little rant, it did flow, obviously, it is good to open up.
Merry Christmas to you all, I hope you have a fine time and find some wonderful family and friends to share a glass with.
Yours Sincerely,
Andrew Nelstrop
Chairman
