Adding value - turning waste into gold

Good quality potatoes make great potato chips or crisps. But what do you with the smaller or mis-shapen potatoes which fail the raw material quality test for a premium crisp brand? Simple, you use them to create a premium brand of vodka…

Potato farmer Will Chase is one of my favourite UK entrepreneurs. We were fortunate to have Will join us at a Business Teacher National Conference several years ago and he explained how vodka was the next product development following the phenomenal success of Tyrrells Chips. The chips business and brand has since been sold for £40m, but the vodka business remains and is thriving.

These two brief clips are from BBC programmes which have recently visited the vodka production line in deepest Herefordshire. Fantastic examples of how value can be added during the production process. In essence, a waste product is being turned into a premium product. It’s hard to imagine much more added value than that!

Escape to the Country from Williams Chase on Vimeo.

Oz Clarke & James May visit our distillery from Williams Chase on Vimeo.