Starter Kit. Idea 136 of 500. Cluster 6
Ceylon arrack as a premium spirit with a distillery tour, the way whisky is sold in Scotland
The mechanism, from the book
Dilmah says it earns over 3 times the national average price for tea, because it does its own blending, branding and packing. The proof has been sitting inside the industry all along.
The first step
Visit a small arrack distillery near you and ask whether they would open for a paid 90 minute tour with a tasting, then agree a price per head and a split. Put the tour to three hotel concierges and a tour operator. Run it for the first group they send and ask each guest whether they would buy again online from home. Bottles sold at the door prove it.
- Who pays first
- A visitor who has done a whisky tour in Scotland and wants the equivalent here, with a bottle to take home.
- What leaves today
- Arrack is drunk cheaply at home and rarely sold abroad as a premium spirit, so the story and the markup belong to other countries' drinks.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Ask whether a distillery tour for visitors must register as a tourist service.
- Sri Lanka Export Development Board. Ask which markets abroad buy premium spirits from small makers.
Check before you spend
That the distillery holds every licence alcohol needs, that tours are safe around the equipment, and what export rules apply to spirits.
Find out these three numbers
- What will visitors pay for a distillery tour and tasting?
- What do premium spirit shops abroad pay per bottle?
- How many visitors pass the distillery each week?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.