name had a nice ring to it and is special to us. It is universal and will prepare us well for wherever we take the brand in the future.” It has been a successful business journey for the family seeing the distillery’s doors officially open in September 2015 at the family’s property on Coldstream Road. However, the brand quickly developed a strong following and the family had
to move the production facility to their current and well-known location in Stewiacke, Nova Scotia just off Highway 102. The company open a second distillery location this past fall in Antig- onish, Nova Scotia, just off Highway 104 across from St. Francis Xavier University taking advan- tage of both of these very popular through ways in the province. Not on the highways and byways a lot these days, don’t worry you can get
COLDSTREAM CLEAR DISTILLERY’S STRAWBERRY KIWI VODKA SODA FROM GRAINS TO GLASSES
by Lee Ann Atwater B ack in the Fall of last year, we had the opportunity to chat with Olivia and Riley Giffen, co-owners of Coldstream Clear Distillery and feature the business in the Septem- ber 2020 issue. Readers may remember that Olivia shared that Coldstream Clear Distillery is truly a family business with each member of the family having their own niche in the business, with very little overlap. Elaine takes care of the accounting logistics, Robert manages production of all spirits, Liam manages ready-to-drink production, and Riley and Olivia are responsible for business development, marketing, and liaising with the liquor boards. This structure has allowed them to be very agile. Olivia explains, “We make a lot happen with less, which has allowed us to become leaders in the market even amongst very large and powerful brands.” Not too bad for a trio (Olivia, Riley and Liam) that are all under the age of 30, that have found their place and clearly understand how to be successful in the ready-to-drink beverage market. Something unique to this brand is that the Giffen family grew up on a property that boasts a high-quality spring that is the perfect source of water for distilling. In fact, Robert and Elaine owned and operated a local bottled water business for ten years prior to the opening of the distillery with Olivia, Riley and Liam. One might assume that the brand is named after the spring however, the name Coldstream Clear was actually the name of the street the family lives on and where the first distillery was located, Coldstream Road. During the infancy of the business, they would label Coldstream Clear on mason jars for identification. Olivia shares, “The
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MARCH 2021 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • MARCH 2021
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