The Eden Mill story began in 2012 when it launched Scotland’s first single site combined brewery and distillery. It creates outstanding flavours and choices of beer, whisky and gin, which have the reputation of being amongst the best in the world.
Since then, the business has changed dramatically – Eden Mill has expanded its brewery and started distilling. It has also grown from a small local company to a recognised international one, which has a strong presence across Scotland. It has also begun developing Eden Mill in the rest of the UK and has developed exports in Europe, Asia and North America for which it was recognised at the Fife Business Awards, scooping the Success through Export award.
Daniel Sherry, Head of Sales at Eden Mill, said: “It was a huge honour for us to win a Fife Business Award. I believe it is because we played to our strengths as a small, fast moving and flexible company, which has allowed us to succeed in challenging markets to do business. Our biggest export market is now the USA, which we project to be about 35 per cent of all of our exports. We are in 15 states and seek to expand this over the course of the year.” Eden Mill has grown significantly and year on year, it’s been close to doubling the size of the company, in both turnover and staff. It continues to expand its gin range, and is moving closer to the time when its whisky will come of age and has some beer developments on the horizon too.
There is also lots more Eden Mill wants to achieve. Daniel added: “The key goals for us are to expand our distillery as a production site and visitor centre. This will allow us to improve our visitor experience significantly, and host more at our site in Guardbridge.
“Our priorities for growth are outside of Scotland, with a huge focus on England and Wales this year. On top of this, we seek to develop our existing export markets and open new ones too.”
But that’s not to say, it hasn’t had challenges as a business. Finding the right import partner, with the same passion and love for its products to enable it to build its brand in new markets, takes time. As does the paperwork and administration side of exporting for Eden Mill, which prides itself in being a Fife-based business.
Daniel concluded: “As a small company figuring out challenging administration required to do business in a new market is a big hurdle to exports. As part of the Fife Trade Partnership, Fife Chamber of Commerce has been of great assistance, providing guidance on how to navigate these, and assisting in getting the required documentation. Without the help we received, it would be hugely challenging to overcome this barrier to entry in a cost effective way.”
