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—Would you ask me that if I were a man? Meet the woman behind the UK’s first net-zero emissions whiskey distillery

Just 18% of businesses in the UK are led by women, and although data suggests that women entrepreneurs are on the rise, men still receive more funding and are entrusted with higher average loans to get started.

In a new series every Tuesday, Money blog reporter Jess Sharp speaks to women who are at the helm in their respective fields – hearing their stories, struggles and advice for those who want to follow in their footsteps.

This week, she spoke to Annabel Thomas, founder of the Nc’nean whiskey distillery…

Annabel left her job as a strategy consultant in London over a decade ago to pursue her ambition to change the way the world views whisky.

With women and sustainability on her mind, she created the UK’s first net-zero emissions whiskey distillery – and hired a female-led team to do it.

It took four years of hard work, fundraising and construction to create the Nc’nean distillery in the Highlands, and then a further three years to produce its first bottle.

‘Everyone thought I was crazy’

She was initially inspired by her parents’ farm and dreamed of transforming one of their old buildings into a distillery.

After visiting many distilleries, she realized that the industry was still very traditional and no one talked about sustainability.

“No one seemed to be thinking very creatively about spirit,” says Annabel, 41.

“I thought this was necessary and that consumers would increasingly demand sustainable products, which is happening now. Although, at the time, everyone thought I was crazy.”

‘I didn’t have a time machine’ – the long process to get started

After deciding to take the plunge, the mother of two says it was a “long, slow process” to get the business off the ground, especially juggling her family’s financial needs and caring for her children.

In fact, she initially took a sabbatical from work to begin with and then came back and started working at Nc’nean on the weekend to make sure she was getting a paycheck from somewhere.

Eventually, her business became a full-time job and she was able to raise a seed round of funding to really get things going.

“What’s different about a distillery from a lot of other projects is that you have to raise a huge amount of money upfront,” she says.

“You can’t make something in your kitchen and try to sell it. We spent £5 million building a distillery before we produced a drop of liquid – so it’s a very different profile to many other startups,” she added.

Getting the funding was “very difficult,” she says, explaining that it’s difficult to raise money when you don’t have a product to show.

“You can’t even tell what the whiskey will taste like because I didn’t have a time machine.”

‘You would never ask me that if I were a man’

It took Annabel two years to raise the funds she needed and she wonders if it would take as long if she were a man.

“Maybe it would have only taken me a year if I had been a man, but you never know,” she says.

Initially, she says, she didn’t think about the challenges she might have to overcome in such a male-dominated field, but it quickly became obvious.

“It didn’t really occur to me until people started asking me, basically every day, if I really liked whiskey,” she explains.

“I thought, ‘You would never ask me that if I were a man – just because I’m a woman, you assume I don’t like it.'”

Making it sustainable

Sustainability was one of Annabel’s key drivers when she embarked on her entrepreneurial journey and her distillery is powered exclusively by renewable energy.

It was the first to create a distillery that was verified to have net zero carbon emissions from its own operations, and also the first to use a 100% recycled clear glass bottle.

“It doesn’t seem like a big deal,” she says modestly. “But in fact, 100% recycled glass saves 40% of carbon emissions compared to what within the industry would be called fake glass, which is largely like new materials.”

When you look at a Nc’nean bottle, it has a sort of green coloring and some bubbles.

The “big guys” would consider them imperfect, says Annabel, but she decided to “embrace the imperfections”.

“If we save 40% of carbon emissions, then we think it’s the right thing to do,” she says.

Nc’nean also replants everything it harvests, uses only 100% organic Scottish barley (the main ingredient in the whiskey) and feeds the leftover grains to the cows that live on the farm.

The challenges

Away from fundraising difficulties, Annabel says looking after her children is one of the biggest challenges she has had to overcome.

With the creation of the company and her husband, a lawyer, she says that caring for her children full time was the only option, but it was very expensive.

“I don’t think as a country we have the right support system,” she says. “It’s not economical for me to work. If I ruled the country, things would be very different.”

The problem also means that work-life balance can be difficult to achieve, and she often feels like she is “not spending enough time with her family and enough time at work”.

“I think at least I now have some control over my own journal, which is really helpful,” she adds.

Annabel’s advice

Use your differences to your advantage – this is Annabel’s main tip.

She urges women not to be “discouraged” by jumping into a male-dominated field, saying the key is to create something different.

Being a woman in this industry was actually an “advantage,” she says.

“You will find that you think differently to everyone else and that can only be a good thing for creating something different, which is important because you need to find your niche.”

In the world of whiskey, work is already underway to encourage women to join and she hopes the same will happen in other industries.

In practice, she says, seeking out support groups is “definitely worth it” and surrounding yourself with people who know more than you do is helpful.

“None of our distillers have ever worked with whiskey before and I like that because it brings a different perspective,” she says.

Read more from this series below…

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