Brand innovation. Distillery operations. Route to market. All connected.
The problem most spirits brands face isn’t making a great liquid.
It’s making a great liquid that sells profitably. That survives distribution. That earns a second listing. That builds a customer who comes back, not just a drinker who tries once.
That gap, between exceptional spirit and sustainable business, is where I work.
That gap didn’t become clear to me in a single role. It became clear across all of them — building and selling Gin Foundry, commissioning distilleries, running brand campaigns for the world’s biggest spirits companies, judging thousands of products, and presenting and sampling spirits to thousands of drinkers at events. I have watched what happens when the liquid, the brand, and the commercial plan don’t speak the same language. That breadth is what I bring to the work.
Here’s my bio and the career that built that perspective — and what it means for the problems I can help you solve.
Distillery builds, commissioning and NPD — from concept to commercial run
Distillery build and commissioning support
I’ve commissioned distilleries from concept through to first commercial run. That means helping founders make the equipment decisions they’ll live with for a decade, designing production flows that allow quality to scale, and building the repeatable processes that turn a great pilot batch into a consistent commercial product.
The work spans four continents: The Republic of Fremantle in Australia, AB Grain Spirits in India, Rayfoun Distillery in Lebanon, Imizi Rum in Rwanda and Mesob Spirits in Ethiopia. Each project required understanding different regulatory environments, different supplier ecosystems, and different commercial contexts — which means I’ve learned where the expensive mistakes get made across a wide range of conditions, not just the familiar ones.
NPD and innovation
I approach product development with both an intergrated sensory and a commercial lens: what does this liquid need to say, who is it for, and what does it need to do on shelf?
I’ve reworked brand positioning and reformulated liquid for Charter Brands, and helped refine the flavour profile of products such as Valley of Mother of God Gin ahead of their market entry. For Hayman’s, Sipmith’s Sipping Society, Tarquin’s and Warner’s, I’ve led limited edition projects designed to do something more specific than extend a range — each was built around the brand’s founding purpose, using a new product as a way to sharpen the story the core range was already telling. A well-executed limited edition isn’t just a new SKU. It’s a reminder to trade and consumers alike of what a brand is fundamentally for.
Brand strategy, route to market and commercial architecture
A brand without commercial architecture fails quietly. Pricing that doesn’t fit the channel. Positioning that doesn’t hold at the buyer meeting. A route to market that looks fine on paper but collapses under real-world margin pressure.
I’ve worked on these problems at both ends of the scale. For William Grant & Sons, that meant global campaign toolkits and experiential programmes for Hendrick’s and Monkey Shoulder — high-level strategic thinking that also required being on the ground, running activations, and understanding how a brand idea translates when it’s being executed by a bar team across a busy festival weekend.
For The Balvenie, the work extended across PR and communications, event planning and delivery, and on-trade POS — building advocacy with the buyers and operators who matter most to a single malt with that level of heritage and positioning.
The through-line in all of it: strategy is only as good as what happens when it meets reality.
I know what that reality looks like from the inside too. I built Gin Foundry into the world’s leading gin platform, sold it to Enotria in 2020, and spent three years inside a national wholesaler building its e-commerce and content operation from the ground up. That meant competing for every D2C click, managing B2B sell-ins, understanding retailer margin dynamics, and learning — at first hand — what actually makes a brand convert when the marketing budget runs out and the product has to stand on its own.
That’s a different kind of commercial education. And it’s one that shapes every route to market conversation I have.
Gin specialist: the category I know from the inside out
Gin is the category I know most deeply, and that depth was built from the inside out — not through observation, but through doing.
What began as a blog in 2013 became Gin Foundry, the world’s leading specialist gin platform, reaching over one million unique users annually at its peak. Building and selling that business taught me something no consultancy engagement ever could: what it actually feels like to be a founder, to carry the commercial risk, and to build something worth acquiring. That experience shapes every conversation I have with founder-led brands.
During that period I created the Botanical Tasting Wheel for gin — now in its fifth iteration and the foremost sensory reference tool in the category, used in distilleries, training programmes and judging panels worldwide. I co-founded Junipalooza, which became the world’s most respected gin festival, running annually in London and Melbourne with satellite shows in Hamburg and Sydney. I wrote Gin Distilled for Penguin Random House, distributed internationally, as well as produced the first specialist print annuals the category had ever seen.
That editorial authority translated into commercial work and writing for other publications varying from trade media like Class Magazine and lifestyle titles such as BA Highlife. I was commissioned to write The Small Book of Gins, Tonics and Garnishes for Fever-Tree — a point of sale publication that needed to carry both brand credibility and genuine category knowledge that went on to sell thousands of copies. I’ve been invited to brief researchers and investors privately, including Distilled Ventures, Diageo’s spirits accelerator, on category dynamics and emerging opportunities.
I remain deeply embedded in the category institutionally. I’m a member of the Gin Guild and serve as Head Judge for Gin at the IWSC — one of the most rigorous competitions globally — where I assess hundreds of entries annually. That judging role isn’t ceremonial. It means I know, in real time, what genuinely good gin looks like across every style and market.
I’ve built a unique set of skills by working across all facets of the spirits industry – from production to brand building, content creation and route to market. This 360° perspective means I don’t just advise from theory, I consult from first-hand experience with a clear understanding of how every piece fits together.
Awards, media and industry recognition
I won the IWSC Spirits Communicator of the Year award in 2017. I hold the IBD General Certificate in Distilling and WSET Level 2 in Spirits, and have spoken at Imbibe Live, Tales of the Cocktail, the American Distilling Conference, Ginposium, The Distiller’s Forum and Class Magazine Bartender Training.
On the media side: I was Channel 4’s resident gin expert on Sunday Brunch for over a decade, presenting gins to audiences 4 to 5 times a year, and have also presented segments for ITV This Morning, and appeared on BBC, Monocle Radio and Sky News.
Recently, I was interviewed by The Spirits Business, covering both gin and the Distilling Census for their podcast.
Everglow Spirits: where the thinking is published
Everglow Spirits is where I publish the thinking that underpins my consulting work. Long-form category reportage, operational guides for distillers, brand strategy frameworks for founders, and market intelligence including the UK Distilling Census — primary data research into the state of craft distilling in Britain.
It’s a platform built on the conviction that the spirits industry performs better when the people in it have access to real, tested, honest guidance that interconnects and isn’t in isolation — not just blinkered inspiration. If you read something on Everglow and it changes how you think about a decision you’re facing, that’s the point.
Let’s talk
If you’re building a distillery, developing a new product, repositioning a brand, or trying to create a sharper link between your liquid and your commercial plan — I’m open to the right conversations.
What ‘the right conversations’ looks like varies. It might be a short advisory engagement with a specific scope. A longer consultancy relationship. A retained strategic role. Or simply a call to pressure-test an idea before committing resources.
Fifteen years. Four continents. One industry. All of it in service of the same question: how do you build a spirits brand that lasts? If that’s the challenge you’re facing, have a look at the consultancy services I offer and how we can start answering it together.