Patsy Bass has become one of the most influential figures in New Zealand's distilling sector, fuelled by her passion for home.
Born and raised in Reefton, Patsy Bass has led an illustrious career through the corporate world, from human resources to change, project and general management roles.
Her latest endeavour, Reefton Distilling Co., was founded by Bass in 2018. In her own words, the company is more than just a whisky and gin, it’s about helping to regenerate a town, providing jobs for the next generation, so that they might have a future on the Coast, stay local, raise their own families, and keep the community alive and vibrant. She said it was also about attracting new people to the region.
A proud ‘Coaster’, Bass has always believed in promoting all the good things happening within the West Coast region. Bass was a founding member of Distilled Spirits Aotearoa and has continued to be active within the association, with her team readily sharing their knowledge to support others in the spirits industry. Knowing that if all producers are as good as they can possibly be, Bass said it would benefit the entire New Zealand Spirits Industry and in turn help put New Zealand spirits firmly on the world stage
The most important advice Bass has received throughout her career was to have a sound, long-term business plan, be bold and not to be afraid to go out and raise finance.
When looking at what she might do to help create a business to contribute to the revitalisation of her hometown, Bass held community forums in Reefton, and brainstormed ideas, with the distillery the one idea we kept coming back to.
She then talked this through with some of her network of successful business people, who were happy to share their knowledge and make introductions. After spending several months creating a business case, her first real challenge was to raise the finance.
Bass said that setting up a distillery is not for the faint-hearted.
“To raise the funds needed (to get a business of this type off the ground) over our initial founding shareholder investment, was a big task. Whisky in particular is a long, slow game, requiring significant capital for many years before there is any return,” she said.
Bass chose an equity share offer via the snowball effect and raised NZD 1.385 million from 221 investors. This gave the company the capital to get the business up and running, invest in brand development and marketing, and in so doing, create a suite of products with both national and international appeal that would also stand the test of time.
Her biggest mentor and her dear friend, was Sir David Levene. Having met 20 years earlier to Reefton Distilling Co.’s establishment, where both were involved with Outwood Bound, Levene continuously told Bass that he liked her thinking and values.
Bass said she knew that in order to get the business off the ground she would need sound advice, and her first call once she had the business case, was to phone Levene and see if he would provide feedback on the Reefton Distilling Co. business case and in particular, the financials.
When Reefton Distilling Co. was established there were only about 30 distilleries in production locally, however there must now be close to 200 New Zealand gin brands. Many are contract-distilled, and Bass has started to see the consolidation of the market.
Bass added that, locally, consumers are also recognising quality New Zealand products and buying premium spirits over other options.
“When we first opened in 2018, most of our visitors drank the top three international brands, but within 18 months, that had swung to the consumer becoming a connoisseur and experimenting with different New Zealand and Australian brands,” she said.
“Our experience at Reefton Distilling Co. is that customers are interested in the provenance of the product, the story behind the brand and the ethos of the company, with sustainability being top of mind for many consumers. We were founded on care of the environment and community, and we are the first B Corp whisky distillery in New Zealand, and the first B Corp business on the West Coast.”
Bass has continued to believe that there is an opportunity for the New Zealand Spirits Industry to be as big as the New Zealand Wine Industry was in its heyday, with a strong export market and New Zealanders choosing Kiwi spirits over other brands. She said that while the spirits industry is young compared to many other countries, there is a great deal of capability and experience in New Zealand, and beautiful crisp, clear water and fresh botanicals.
She said that New Zealand has the opportunity to stand out among other international spirits producers, as it has always been strong as a food producer with high-quality produce. She added that New Zealand distilleries also have a unique opportunity to use those locally grown, high-quality ingredients to their best advantage.
“I also believe that putting our efforts into creating a sustainable industry, showing that we can protect the planet and still produce high-quality spirits is a positive step. As an industry, we need to highlight the provenance and sustainability of our products and take time to share our stories both in New Zealand and overseas whenever the opportunity arises.”
Throughout her journey with Reefton Distilling Co., Patsy Bass said there have been so many ‘pinch me’ moments, including standing in Shackleton’s hut in Antarctica, working on leadership development alongside Sir Tipene O’Regan, and over the last seven years there have been so many highlights relating to the distillery. Some of these include achieving the first international award for the Little Biddy Gin at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition back in March 2019, which highlighted that Reefton’s products could stand with the best and gave the distillery the courage to keep pushing boundaries, as well as securing a multi-year supply contract to distill bulk whisky for the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) in June 2023.
However, Patsy Bass said that if she had to choose just one thing it would be the whole journey of establishing a distillery in a small rural town on the West Coast of New Zealand and the support of the region, when so many said it couldn’t be done.
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