Lójhdas can now be rightly said to be good, but a thousand bottles per month is not enough to export.
Tornio Distillery says it has once again been awarded the prize for its Lójhtu – The Magical Gin of Lapland, made from Lappish ingredients. This time, the beverage received double gold from the China Wine & Spirit Awards Best Value (CWSA), which looks at the quality of the beverage against its price.
The Chinese market would be huge, but currently the export success is driven by production volumes that in recent months have been around 500-600 liters, or 1,000-1,200 bottles per month. The product is in Alko’s order selection and to some extent it also goes to Sweden.
Kaj Kostiander , Managing Director of Tornio Distillery, says that the distillery investment is inevitably ahead, with plans to increase production to “thousands” of liters per month.
“Frankly, the product’s fascination has surprised us. Initially, we started to make a Lapland product for the Lapin market, and now it is becoming half-international, ”says Kostiander.
The brewery has sent Lójhtua to competitions just to measure the quality of the product. No more confusion about it, as there have already been five confessions.
“If we want to capitalize on this success, we need to invest more. There would be interest in, and investment in, the international market, but it won’t succeed until we get the volume right. “
We have to start the financing round, as the distillery investment alone speaks of up to a couple of hundred thousand euros, and we also want to invest in the main products, beer and tentacles.
The company is doing quite well. The financial statements have not yet been completed, but last year saw growth of around 20 per cent, with net sales of around EUR 1.4 million and a profit. Less than half a million liters of beer were put in. Leo Andelin , who has created the recipe for the beer currently sold as Original Lapland Lager in the 1960s, will be the brewery master and quality controller . The beer in question is the brewery’s best-selling and covers a good quarter of total production.
There were also raw material problems last year, when there was not enough jam for the tentacle and there was a shortage of juniper berries needed for gin.
“We are a little tense all the time because we are on the road to using only domestic. With these prospects, it looks like availability is on the rise, ”says Kostiander.
Five awards
Lójhdu’s CWSA recognition is the highest possible. However, the quality of the gin seems to have been high by the way, as 20 of the award-winning drinks have won double gold, and the weaker medal has fallen below ten. In wines, the dispersion is much greater and double golds rare. Japanese Sasaki Gin has been selected as the Gin of the Year by CWSA.
According to its website, CWSA is the most important beverage competition in China and Hong Kong. The jury is made up of 100 people representing the country’s leading importers of alcoholic beverages, wholesalers, retailers, restaurant chain owners and sommeliers.
