Pincer grabs supermarket listing contract

Deputy Business Editor

Monday 29 October 2012

A VODKA company has secured its first supermarket listing and will be sold in Waitrose stores in Scotland from early next month.

SUCCESS: Pincer Vodka founder Jonathan Engels wants to re-use the heat generated from distilling the drink to help grow tomatoes, replicating the Glen Garioch operation.

Custom byline text:

Greig Cameron

Pincer Vodka will go into four shops – Morningside and Comely Bank in Edinburgh plus Byres Road in Glasgow and Newton Mearns – on November 5 although it may also be stocked in Stirling and Helensburgh when those open next year.

Each shop will initially take five cases, with six bottles in each, to see how the vodka, made with extracts of milk thistle and wild elderflower, is received. Founder Jonathan Engels said he was responding to customer demand to make the produce more widely available.He said: "We have been working with small independent retailers for the past few years, which have been really good to us."I was doing food festivals over in Edinburgh earlier in the year and speaking to thousands of customers every day. "Many had tried Pincer in bars but were finding it difficult to get hold of so I wanted to simplify it for them. "I approached Waitrose and sent them some samples. They really like the taste and brand and are launching it in the Scottish stores."Hopefully, all the work we have put in over the past few years and the positive way it has been presented by the Scottish bar trade means that when people see it on the shelves they will buy it." Earlier this year Glasgow-based Pincer, which celebrated its fourth birthday on Wednesday and had a special cocktail created at Stravaigin to mark the occasion, agreed a transformative distribution deal with United States company Double Eagle. The first shipment has just been dispatched to Atlanta and will be sent around Texas, Colorado and New York State. Pincer expects to ship around 1000 cases every month.Double Eagle is also going to provide some investment to allow Pincer to build its own distillery.Mr Engels said: "It is them that are creating the massive spike in volume and they know the company very well."While a new distillery is moving closer, Mr Engels said the vodka would continue to be distilled and bottled at Ian Macleod in Broxburn, West Lothian, for the time being.One element he is keen to incorporate in a Pincer facility is re-using the heat generated during the distilling process.He said: "I have a tiny little test I still use to do small batches. The heat that comes off it is just phenomenal even on a really small scale."So we think we can heat greenhouses for tomatoes with a larger distillery."I grew up in Inverurie and there was the Glen Garioch distillery up there. When I was young it had a whole field of greenhouses for tomatoes."

Contextual targeting label:

Food and drink

Commenting & Moderation

We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.

Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.

Pincer grabs supermarket listing contract

Commenting & Moderation

MOST READ

SPONSORED LINKS

MOST COMMENTED