St Martin’s distillery boosts its marketing thanks to Isles of Scilly Voucher scheme

The Voucher Scheme programme on the Isles of Scilly is a £1.3 million investment fund, financed by the European Regional Development Fund. The scheme allows businesses and individuals on the islands to access financial support from £1,000 to £100,000 to invest in their start up or existing business.

Kirsty Graham, Engagement Officer from the Voucher Scheme says: “The aim of the scheme is really to facilitate long term, sustainable growth on the islands and to help people running businesses access the investment they need in order to be able to achieve that. We want businesses to be able to realise their growth ambitions and to create more jobs to help create a sustainable economy for the Isles of Scilly.”

One of the businesses to access support from the scheme is start up enterprise, SC Dogs Distillery. Based on St. Martin’s, the Walder family has run Carron Farm for almost 70 years initially growing scented Narcissi on their Duchy of Cornwall farm tenancy.

Under the tender of the second generation, Stephen Walder, the farm has supplied milk, beef, fish and shellfish to the islands and more recently developed a facility which allowed them to harvest, produce and supply sea salt, branded SC Salt.

“It’s taken over six years of planning and investment to get SC Dogs Distillery up and running,” says Andrew, Stephen Walder’s son and one of the driving forces behind SC Dogs Distillery.

“We initially applied to the RDPE Growth Fund for funding to help us repurpose the outbuildings on the farm so that they were suitable and also to buy the distillery equipment we needed. Once we’d actually started to develop our rum we applied to the Voucher Scheme for support with our marketing, online and social media presence.”

SC Dogs Distillery is the first of its kind on St. Martins and the family has worked closely with the wider community and the whole of the Isles of Scilly to create a premium rum which not only uses locally grown ingredients wherever possible, but also is genuinely reflective of the heritage of the islands.

“Our family were amongst the first settlers on St. Martin’s, so the idea of community, what it means and the lifeline it can be is in our blood,” says Andrew. 

“The distillery aims to protect our future livelihoods, give jobs to others but also it’s about supporting other local businesses within our community, not just on St. Martin’s but across the whole of the Isles of Scilly and particularly the off islands.”

SC Dogs Distillery has built community and story-telling into the brand. Each product has a story on the bottle dedicated to a character who embodies the ‘Spirit of St. Martin’s’ with artwork commissioned by different local artists and illustrators. The characters and their tales coming from different islands across Scilly. Supporting other local businesses is key for the Walder family and collaborations are already in the pipeline.

Andrew says: “There are so many opportunities for us to collaborate with and support other businesses across the islands. We’ve already spoken about working with apple farmers on St. Mary’s to make brandy, local chocolate and ice-cream producers on St. Agnes and fudge producers on Bryher. We also have exciting  plans to create premium Rhum Agricole bottles with a local potter, bottle neck chains with a jeweller on St. Martin’s and even canvas bottle bags with a sailmaker on the islands.

“It’s important to us to give back to the community. During the Coronavirus outbreak we have refocused our efforts, using some of our distilled alcohol to produce a hand sanitiser, with free bottles dropped on the doorsteps of the over 70s on the islands.”

State of the art Genio distillery equipment arrived on St. Martins in early February 2019 and the first batches of white rum and vodka were bottled in February 2020 and are available now online, from the distillery door and local retailers across the Isles of Scilly.  Rums that require a period of ageing have been laid down in traditional oak barrels, sourced from Speyside Cooperage in Scotland. These will be available from late 2020 onwards.

Kirsty Graham says: “SC Dogs Distillery is the kind of business the Voucher Scheme wants to support as it has the potential to create jobs and work alongside other island businesses. It’s got real potential to positively impact the economy of the Isles of Scilly.”

The Voucher Scheme on the Isles of Scilly is run by the Isles of Scilly Council and in the first phase of the programme supported 49 start ups and existing businesses with investment totalling £2,250,000. Following the success of phase one of the project, the scheme has recently been granted an extension until December 2021 and a further £1.3 million has been made available. Businesses are expected to match fund 30 – 65% depending on the project.