For distillers & producers
A capable partner in Britain.
We want to partner with you through membership, retail, wholesale and investment. Look at who we are.
Why this matters
The UK wants what big importers overlook
Japan has hundreds of distilleries. The big British and European buyers chase the famous names. The small houses — often former sake or shochu makers with a real history — rarely reach Britain at all. That gap is our whole business.
-
Expertise and contacts
Business expertise and international contacts: transport, international services, IT, marketing. Japan in the room. Not cowboys sniffing around an industry.
-
Routes to market
Retail to drinkers. Allocations for members. B2B to restaurants and shops. Unique tasting formats later, when the relationship is real. We keep the routes plural.
-
Investment partnership
Investment is one of the channels, alongside membership, retail and wholesale. A conversation if a deeper partnership helps you.
Demand
A waitlist we are building.
We are building a waitlist of UK members who want first allocation. When your bottles arrive, those people hear first.
We do not pretend we have a full shop yet. We show you who we are, and that we are gathering drinkers who care.
How we sell stays open: membership, retail, wholesale and investment. Stage one is a conversation, then a first order.
-
Introduction
The member waitlist we are building hears first. Your story, not a faceless SKU.
-
Feedback
Members rate what they taste. Strong houses come back. Their palate is our buying committee — and evidence for your next order.
-
Full bottles
What they love, they buy in full. Attach rate is the number that matters: every sample is an invitation to stock your larger bottle.
-
Community
UK tastings, guest places, and over time trips to Japan. A standing community of lovers, not a one-click cart.
Reliable service
What we take off your plate
Export is the reason many excellent houses never leave Japan. Our job is to make the UK simple: one relationship, one partner, end-to-end.
- Import & dutyWe manage shipping from Japan, UK customs, excise and VAT. You do not need a British warehouse or a British licence to start the conversation.
- Bonded storageStock lands in a bonded warehouse in England, with professional storage and fulfilment — not a garage, not a risk on your reputation.
- DistributionOrders go to verified adult customers across the UK. Age checks, packaging, delivery tracking. Small founding batches are fine; we scale with demand.
- MarketingYour house is written up for members: origin, people, process. Seasonal features, tasting cards, member scores, and UK events when the timing is right.
- Commercial clarityTransparent terms, realistic volumes, and a preference for houses we can grow with — gin or shochu today can open the door for whisky when it matures.
- One contactJapan-side relationship and UK-side operations under one brand. Real conversations, not only cold email. English and Japanese fluency on the team.
How we work together
From first talk to first order
-
Conversation
A real discussion — interest, capacity, export readiness. No hard sell. If it is not a fit, we say so early.
-
Taste together
We sample as a team. Range matters: peat to honey, not one note. Only spirits we would put our own names behind go forward.
-
Agree the shape
Volumes, exclusivity where it helps, and which route to the drinker comes first. We do not lock one model on day one.
-
Ship & feature
We import, warehouse and introduce you to members. Ratings and full-bottle demand tell us how deep to go next.
Fit
Who this is for
We are looking for
- Small, independent houses — not only the famous names already everywhere in Europe.
- A real history where possible: sake, shochu or long craft roots, not a still set up last week to chase a trend.
- Recognition at home — awards, local respect, or a reputation among people who know the category.
- Spirits not yet widely sold in the UK, or categories (gin, shochu, awamori) that can open whisky relationships later.
- Willingness to tell the story of the house, and pride in who drinks the liquid.
We are not
- A mass discounter or an Amazon-style catalogue.
- An investment platform. Everything we sell is for drinking.
- Looking for hundred-SKU dumps. A handful of serious partners beats a crowded shelf.
- Promising overnight volume. Founding batches may start around a hundred bottles per house; we grow with proof.
Questions distillers ask
Will you only take whisky?
No. Whisky, craft gin, honkaku shochu and awamori all fit. Many young houses fund maturing whisky with gin or shochu today — a relationship now can become first call on whisky later.
Do you need a special format from day one?
No. Stage one is ordinary bottles we can buy and sell. Special formats are a later conversation, if both sides want them.
How exclusive is exclusive?
For houses we grow with, we prefer clear UK access so members cannot get you on every high street. Terms are negotiated honestly. Exclusivity is earned by committed volume, storytelling and care — not demanded as a free option.
What volumes should we expect at the start?
Early seasons are small on purpose. Think founding batches in the order of a hundred bottles per feature, then full-bottle restocks driven by member demand. We would rather under-promise and reorder than strand stock you cannot move.
Who pays for marketing?
Membership marketing, tasting cards, site features and UK community activity are our cost of running the club. Your investment is good liquid, honest stories, and the partnership time to get the details right.
Can we meet in Japan?
Yes. Our Japan lead visits houses; co-founders travel when a relationship is serious. We prefer real conversations and shared tasting over long email chains.