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Dunnet Bay Distillers
Founders of Dunnet Bay Distillers, Martin and Claire Murray, first met at school in Caithness. After moving away for university and work, they longed to come back home. Martin enjoyed making gin and beer, experimenting with flavours for fun. Claire is creative with a passion for design.
Using the best of both of their talents and skills they forged their plan, resulting in their first distillation in August 2014. Using local botanicals, they had created an earthy and floral gin, with both spirit and bottle design reflective of their Caithness surroundings.
The company grew far more quickly than Martin and Claire had anticipated, prompting them to get in touch with Highlands and Islands Enterprise鈥檚 (麻豆精选) Innovation team.
鈥淏eing a small family business, we were struggling to find the time or find those with the skill set to help us get things done,鈥� says Martin.
鈥溌槎咕� helped us find the right people with the right expertise for the things we didn鈥檛 have time to do. They were very supportive during the development of some of our more challenging products. Without their help these products may have disappeared, but 麻豆精选鈥檚 assistance made their development and completion possible.鈥�
Martin and Claire now employ 13 people at the distillery which, thanks to their continued growth and innovation, is now open to visitors for tours with tasting sessions.
They feel that innovation has been vital to Dunnet Bay鈥檚 growth and expansion.
鈥淏efore we started the business, innovation felt like something other people did," Martin continues.
"Once we started, we realised we had to innovate to do things more efficiently. It鈥檚 the simple little things, for example, putting stickers on our bottles. It was a clumsy, time-consuming process. So Claire鈥檚 dad designed a rack that could steadily apply three stickers at a time. He then tweaked it till perfection and it has totally sped up our process.鈥�
You might have an idea but sometimes, without the reassurance that it’s the right way to go, you drop it. With 麻豆精选, you get that reassurance. They’re a supportive and motivational sounding board.Martin Murray, Founder, Dunnet Bay Distillers
Coming into the market during the recent gin boom, Dunnet Bay had to be innovative to compete and grow.
Martin says, 鈥淚nnovation has helped our business have an advantage over our competitors. We helped carve out our place in the market by creating spirits using local botanicals. This means we鈥檙e making products our competitors can鈥檛 make. We鈥檙e capturing flavours only we can catch. We also created the first grass vodka in the UK, using Holy Grass found on the banks of Thurso. Our gin and vodka bottle designs reflect how our spirits tie in with the story of the area. There鈥檚 a lot of Caithness both in or on the bottle.鈥�
Speaking of his experience with 麻豆精选鈥檚 Innovation team, Martin said, 鈥淲e鈥檝e found it to be a brilliant resource to allow our business to innovate. They also help you break down the barriers to innovation. You might have an idea but sometimes, without the reassurance that it鈥檚 the right way to go, you drop it. With 麻豆精选, you get that reassurance. They鈥檙e a supportive and motivational sounding board.鈥�
Collaborating with 麻豆精选 has been vital in ensuring Dunnet Bay could scale up from its roots as a small-scale cottage industry. According to Martin, 麻豆精选鈥檚 Innovation team has helped the business develop something that is unique. 鈥淚nnovation is in our nature. We want to do exciting things. It鈥檚 easy to go out and copy people and be successful but the real reward comes when you create something of your own.鈥�
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