“We’ve been able to increase our production by really only adding one member to the team but really tightening up systems and working on efficiencies.”
In case you left your chemical engineering degree in your other jacket, the simple explanation is, by carefully con- trolling the distilling process the unwanted components can be eliminated while maintaining all the substances of quality. This separation, or elimination, of the unpleas- ant and unwanted substances is called rectification and is obtained by removing the heads and tails of the distillate. The good news is, consumers of Ampersand spirits don’t need higher education to enjoy the unique tastes of their vodka and gin. The products speak for themselves, as does the curious name for the company. So let’s leave the chemical engineering to Jeremy and get down to the important marketing and branding questions. Why is the company named after a keyboardsymbol? (An ampersand is one of these “&” by the way, in case you can’t remember back to your grade 10 typing class.) Schacht answers with the certainty of an explanation she has deliv-
ered presumably many times. “Yeah, I’ve always heard that names joined together with an ampersand rather than the word ‘and’ signifies closer collaboration. So this being a family business, it was really a fitting distinction for our venture. We try to embody this notion of bringing things together. So the ampersand fits in Gin & Tonic… ingredi- ents & technology. We’re bringing together the art and the science of distillation. And just the way that cocktails can bring people together in conversation. That’s the ethos we try to embody as we work and create.” And while we’re talking nomenclature here, there was no doubt that we were going to end up with Latin origins and literal symbolism. But Schacht cleverly ties it into the company’s product line. “Ampersand is actually an amal- gamation of the words ‘and per se and.’ It used to actually be the 27th letter in the alphabet… so Ampersand Gin is our flagship product. It’s the spirits and the botanicals that
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • OCTOBER 2017
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