Caithness distillery named finalist in prestigious national business awards

Dunnet Bay Distillery near Thurso is one of five nationwide finalists in the Best Rural Start-Up category.

The awards, run in partnership with the CLA and Amazon, are the only UK-wide programme dedicated to showcasing the success of rural businesses.

Now in their third year and with nearly three times as many entries as in 2016, they are split into 13 sections with one category winner also crowned overall Champion of Champions on the night.

The distillery is most renowned for producing the multi-award winning Holy Grass Vodka and Rock Rose Gin, which feature a selection of local and traditional botanicals.

Spirits are crafted using a traditional copper pot still, before each bottle is individually filled, wax sealed and signed, all by hand. Waste products feed sheep in the local fields and the distillery has supported the local biodiversity group with the restoration of juniper in the local area and also the conservation of the small blue butterfly.

The distillery has created the world’s first Burns gin, the UKs first range of seasonal gins using local ingredients as part of the distillation and also the UKs first grass vodka. Judges loved Dunnet’s “great product and brand with a rural spirit”, which they thought was unique enough to continue to succeed in a tough but growing market.

The RBAs are the brainchild of Leicestershire businesswomen Anna Price and Jemma Clifford, who wanted to showcase the entrepreneurial talent in rural areas of Britain – a sector of the economy they felt was all-too-often overlooked in favour of large city-based firms.

The awards are organised by rural businesses for rural businesses and judged by people who understand the rural sector, which is growing rapidly and employs in excess of 3.4 million people in more than 600,000 businesses across the UK.

Awards co-founder Anna Price said: “Start-ups are often associated with the bright lights of our big cities, but the truth is that rural Britain is a flourishing hotpot of business zeal and imagination. Many rural areas have been struggling economically and out of that struggle we are starting to see some amazing innovation. It is incredibly important to give start-ups support when they are getting off the ground and we hope that by highlighting these fantastic enterprises on what we are sure will be a long and successful journey, our awards will do just that.

“The Rural Business Awards give rural enterprises of all sizes the opportunity to showcase their success and the contribution they are making to our thriving rural economy – just the firms that have entered in 2017 have combined turnovers well in excess of £70m. Hundreds of companies enter the RBAs each year and the finals illustrate the best businesses the countryside has to offer in each of the 13 categories. Congratulations to all of our shortlisted organisations, they are yet another reason to be proud of our outstanding rural economy.”

Helen Woolley, director general of the CLA, said: “Each of these outstanding rural businesses deserves a place in the final. They have shown great expertise in their field and have a real understanding of how their business fits into the rural economy. I wish each and every one good luck at the awards ceremony in October.”

This year’s glittering awards ceremony will be held at Denbies Wine Estates in Surrey on October 5.