Our/London Vodka a Truly Glocal Business

The latest outpost of Our/Vodka has just opened up in London's creative epicentre, Hackney. We stopped by to check out the events space and distillery to find out more about the brand.

Neil Chivers and Clive Watson, lifelong friends and partners in Our/London, pushed the old adage “nothing worthwhile comes easy” to its limits in the process of setting up their Hackney-based vodka distillery and events space. When contacted by Great Works, the Swedish creative agency tasked with helping to identify potential partners, Neil was initially indifferent: “I received a Facebook message from Mattias from Great Works, the creative agency in Sweden and I sort of skim read the message that said ‘vodka’ and ignored it. I thought they wanted me to do PR for vodka and that’s not what I do.”

The arrival of Great Works’ message coincided with Neil’s secretive marriage plans. And so, with the message still sitting in his inbox, Neil flew with his girlfriend to Costa Rica and tied the knot on a moonlit beach.

After the newlyweds returned from their Central American sojourn, Neil still needed persuading. Over lunch he told Mattias that he felt it wasn’t for him, but that his friend, Clive Watson, with extensive experience of the hospitality business, would be a more natural fit. In a serendipitous twist of fate, he was told that in fact Clive was already on the list, and they’d been recommended as a pair.

Åsa Caap, the creator of the Our/Vodka concept, famously decides on partners based on whether or not she would have Christmas dinner with them. And so, Neil and Clive were flown out to Sweden to learn more about the proposal at a chemistry meeting designed to establish whether the three of them would get along.

We’re sharing ideas all the time, Berlin are trying one thing and if it works then we all get to try it. And if stuff doesn’t work in one territory maybe it will work in another.

Given that Cap spent two years incubating Our/Vodka, pitching the plan unsuccessfully “60 times” to parent company Pernod Ricard before seeing it green lit, it’s unsurprising that bringing the right partners on board is so important to her. This approach defines and informs a great deal of the decision-making process and also helps to bind Our/Vodka’s constituent territories as a global community rather than disparate outposts. The partners meet up once a year, though sadly not at Christmas: “We’re sharing ideas all the time, Berlin are trying one thing and if it works then we all get to try it. And if stuff doesn’t work in one territory maybe it will work in another. And as every city opens up it makes our brand stronger”

After a three-month hunt, Our/London decided that two adjoining railway arches in Hackney, an area Neil reasonably describes as “the creative epicentre of London” would be the ideal location for their new venture. However, securing the space proved problematic, and Neil, “ended up calling Network Rail three times a day” in what turned out to be an extremely testing, yet ultimately successful pursuit.

Clive and Neil’s shared passions have informed the events that have taken place at the event space to date. The two men met at art school over 25 years ago and now work individually in the areas of music and food, so it feels entirely fitting their initial forays into the events world draw directly from these influences.

So far, they’ve established a monthly collaboration with Bethnal Green-based providers of intimate gigs, Sofar Sounds; made the space available for denim brand Bethnal’s Spring/Summer 2016 presentation; and allowed the distillery to be used as a backdrop in a photoshoot for musicians Tinie Tempah and Izzy Bizu.

However, it isn’t just established brands who’ve been able to take advantage of the versatile setting, Neil and Clive have made a conscious effort to add a community to feel to the Our/London space “we’ve been giving fashion students the opportunity to do their photo shoots here, free of charge.”

This isn’t to say that the partners will allow just anyone to use their home as they please, and nor will they overextend themselves or reach out to people and organisations in order to superficially raise their profile.

The two entrepreneurs used their contacts in the industry to “beg steal and borrow” the equipment needed to turn the disused arches into a suitable event space, and their hard work shows. “A friend of mine who owns a speaker company provided the sound system at cost price. A friend of Clive’s helped to refit and redesign the internal events room”. Neil and Clive have equipped the room with all the necessary features that have make it flexible enough for large parties, tours and the aforementioned photo-shoots.

Our vodka is wheat based, Detroit’s vodka is corn based and LA’s will be grape based, because those are the ingredients most local to them.

The distillery itself is an impressive operation. Although largely run by by the distillery manager, busy periods require an “all hands on deck” approach with Matt, Joel and Jack, who heads up the marketing, all mucking in when needed.

Locally sourced ingredients are of paramount importance given Our/Vodka’s community-minded approach. “We get the highest quality spirits that we can from as close as possible. We tried to find a place in London but we found that the quality and consistency was best in this place just outside Birmingham.”

This theme is echoed in all of the other Our/Vodka territories, from Berlin to New York. The ingredients reflect the locale; each is made to feel more connected to its surrounding area by the sourcing of local and carefully selected natural ingredients “Our vodka is wheat based, Detroit’s vodka is corn based and LA’s will be grape based, because those are the ingredients most local to them. There’s a flavour compound that we all use which comes from Sweden, I guess that’s what ties all the cities together in terms of taste and flavour.” Fitting for a brand that was originally conceived there.

Once the distillery’s specifically designed copper pot has created the molecularly perfect base product, it’s mixed with purified and demineralized London water to bring the alcohol content down to a palatable 37.5% ABV.

“We’ll make up to about 1400 bottles in any one batch and the whole process can take about 48 hours, so it’s a fairly quick turnaround.”

The soon to be recognisable bottles are gravity filled, individually capped by hand, machine-labelled and then stacked neatly into boxes by the distillery manager.

Although the small batches of Our/London vodka are distilled and packaged on site the team are keen to dispel any artisanal impressions “We’re trying to steer away from the notion of craft because we don’t feel we are. We have a huge backup in Pernot Ricard and we are geared to scale up. We can make a lot of product if we were running 24 hours a day, we can make 40,000 cases a year.”

After an initial struggle, owing to the fact that most places had already ordered the quantities of alcohol from the brands they wanted to stock over Christmas, Our/London have gradually expanded their outreach “We’re in 50 outlets across London including Harvey Nichols, Borough Wines and various other independent stores and bars as well as a few restaurants; we’re slowly building our brand and our distributions.”

The revelation that Neil and Clive currently make no money from the Our/London project and are at present putting in their time for free only serves to reinforce the sense of care and ownership Åsa Caap was hoping to imbue each territory with. Though Absolut fund the operation, it works as a profit share and until it becomes cost-effective, Neil and Clive will take no income.

Åsa Caap’s idea was simple; she wanted to create a drinks brand that worked at a local level.  Rather than have a centralised distillery in Sweden and use a huge marketing budget to push the product overseas, she went into the cities and found local partners who were established in their own industries, people who could bring something different to the table and offer a different take on what a drinks brand ought to be.

By involving local entrepreneurs who understand the ebb and flow of their city or notably those not drawn from the drinks industry, Our/Vodka is successfully fostering an approach that champions diversity and localism. “All the partners are different, and will have a way of bringing their brand to life as it were.”