Distilling the Arbikie story

Welcome to the third episode of In Conversation With… hosted this month by Principal Consultant Mark Bowsher-Gibbs. On today’s episode Mark is joined by John Stirling (Director at Arbikie Distilling Limited). They discuss how John draws on different strengths within the family business to sustainably produce a premium brand spirit, controlling the whole production process, starting with quality home-grown ingredients. Mark and John explore how to add value to the crops grown on farm, marketing of products and how to remain competitive in the marketplace. To finish, John outlines his vision for the future of Arbikie. This show is produced in association with the Scottish Government.

Episode Timestamps

03.34 Arbikie – a historical family business

07.00 Drawing on family skill sets

10.23 Lightbulb moment!

12.34 Varietal resilience

14.35 Different crops and the processing calendar

18.20 The world’s first climate positive spirits

20.34 Intercropping

22.57 The premium market – quality over quantity

25.06 Producing base spirit at Arbikie

28.51 Unique selling points – locality, short supply chain, sustainability

29.43 Emissions – sequestering more than emitting