Business Spotlight: St Davids Distillery

St Davids Distillery is an independently-owned distillery based in the UK’s smallest city, St Davids, Pembrokeshire. It was founded by eighth-generation St Davidian, Neil Walsh, in 2019. Using his marketing background and alongside his restaurant business, Neil is building a brand with a passion for local ingredients and a social conscience. St Davids Distillery has an extensive range of premium spirits including gins, rums and vodkas, with a possible move into whiskey up his sleeve. 

Having recently been awarded the “Michelin star of the gin world”, Neil has big ambitions to take the brand global with the help of St. David himself and the Welsh diaspora. We caught up with Neil to find out more…

Tell us about how St Davids Distillery came about…

I'm at least eight generation St Davids so a proper local boy! I moved away when I was fourteen up to the Midlands, I went to university in Cardiff then I ended up working in London. After eight years in London, I came back to Wales to set up a digital marketing agency with a friend, based in Swansea. We grew that business to seven million turnover and twenty staff. 

After I sold my shares in 2016, for some insane reason, I decided to head back home and open up a restaurant - St Davids Kitchen. I wanted to create all year-round jobs because in St Davids, even though it's a lovely area, there's actually quite a lot of hidden poverty due to the peaks and troughs of tourism. So I wanted to build something that would champion local producers and also create reliable employment for local people all year round.

Having a restaurant then piqued my interest in gin and in 2019 we started working with a company to create our own gin products. That went really well so we invested in our own still about three years ago. Again, it’s all about keeping it local. We use local botanicals. Our seaweed gin uses local seaweed from Whitesands. We also have a St Davids Gin Ramsay Island edition which uses botanicals off the island - water mint and heather flower.

You use profits to support local causes, tell us more about that…

I am very passionate about my local area and feel very fortunate that I am in a position to give back to the ‘land of my fathers’. We have partnered with the RSPB and we donate profits from the Ramsay Island gin to support the birds on the island. Profits from our Seaweed Spiced Rum go towards supporting the local life station and profits from our vodka go to Prostate Cymru. I think it’s very important to give back if you can. 

Through GlobalWelsh we have also made connections with the Welsh National Opera and have a partnership with them too. It’s tough for Welsh arts organisations at the moment so I want to do my bit.

Tell us where you are on your journey right now…

So, we've had the gin brand for about five years now and we've been doing it slowly on a hyper-local basis just selling through the restaurant and our own online channels. It feels a bit like diversification with farming because hospitality is not for the faint-hearted and it has been a tough few years but the gin has helped sustain us.

We haven't ramped up production yet and this is partly to do with the fact that we have been working on redesigning our bottles. We wanted to get that right and ready for the mass market before scaling up. After three years, we finally have the new bottle and are in a position to start executing our growth plans.

What makes you different to other distilleries?

I like to think we have a story that people enjoy hearing, and hopefully telling. We have a social conscience, give back and invest locally. We use only the finest local ingredients from Pembrokeshire and we have a premium product at a fair price point. 

Spirits from St Davids, the smallest city in the UK, that’s pretty cool too, right?

So what are your ambitions for St Davids Distillery?

We are actually really excited to be Craft Gin Club’s, Gin of the Month this December. This is a bit like the Michelin star of the gin world - an amazing accolade but also a fantastic platform to elevate our brand. 

The Craft Gin Club has over 60,000 subscribers and we were selected out of hundreds of gins to be featured. December is also their biggest month, because of Christmas, so this is transformational for us. We want to use this as an opportunity to build our brand.

We’ve spent the last few years making connections, speaking to people, building up a product range and learning the trade. We are now in a position to start growing and exploring bigger markets.

Why is tapping into the Welsh diaspora so important to your growth plans? 

As the patron saint of Wales, St. David is already a huge global brand and recognisably Welsh so we want to tap into this for a start. Welsh people are a key market for us and, as we know, there are millions of Welsh people, and communities, all over the world that I would love to try our products. North America is the holy grail for us - there are nearly two million Welsh people in the US alone - so I am very excited about making connections and exploring the opportunities over there as soon as possible. 

How can the GlobalWelsh community help you grow?

Our GlobalWelsh business membership is a major part of our domestic and international growth strategy going forward. Having opportunities to engage with a global community of Welsh people who are predisposed to want to connect is incredible. 

Soon after joining I engaged with a mentor based in London and he is already opening up opportunities for us. For example, we are sponsoring player of the match at London Welsh Rugby Club later this month - paid for by gin!

We need to start building connections with UK-based and overseas buyers as well as hotels and restaurants so we are looking for introductions and help there and I will be using GlobalWelsh Connect to start putting the feelers out.

Lastly, if anyone is in the market for a delicious bottle of premium Welsh spirit for yourself or as a gift, please head to our website. Unfortunately, we aren’t shipping internationally yet but, of course, that is very much in the plan! We would love to see our spirits being enjoyed all over the world on St. David’s Day each year! 

Buy a bottle for your favourite gin lover this Christmas... use code 'GW24' for 10% off all products. Head to www.stdavidsdistillery.wales