Episode 207: Ola Lopatowska of Stravaig Spirits & Tri Carragh Scotch Whisky
Ola began her professional career working in sales at a membership based networking company in Edinburgh followed by her first drinks industry position at The Scotch Malt Whisky Society. Having spent 4 years developing her knowledge and understanding of Scotch whisky at the society, Ola also sat as a member of their renowned tasting panel involved in their whisky selections.
Her career then took her to a number of other sales and business development roles, in software, motorbike sales and finally back to whisky in 2019 as a cask broker. Through this role Ola gained an alternative insight to the whisky market, both the lucrative opportunities and the pitfalls of working in a non-regulated environment.
Co-founding Stravaig Spirits in 2021, Ola has continued to build strong relationships within the whisky industry. Working closely with a network of partners, she supports and guides individuals and companies through the exciting process of single cask whisky ownership and private own brand bottling.
Together with her business partner Ryan, they released their first independent bottling brand Tri Carragh Single Malt Scotch Whisky in October 2022 in the UK with distributors in Japan, Canada and Netherlands. Last summer Glenlaird Scotch Whisky was developed for the South Korean market with an initial 12,000 bottle order and exclusive distribution deal and is now building momentum in other markets.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/olal2/
https://www.instagram.com/tricarragh/
https://www.facebook.com/tricarragh
Timestamps:
[1:00] How did you get started and what do you do?
[7:20] Getting started trading whisky isn’t easy!
[8:50] What is a bonded warehouse?
[11:00] How did you start exporting?
[17:10] How do you split the duties with just the two of you running the whole show?
[25:00] Gaining employees and the stress factors
[30:00] If your business had a character or personality who would it be or what would that look like?
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