Leeds-based specialist food and drink consultancy, North PR, is pouring itself a large G&T to celebrate being appointed by Yorkshire-based Sloemotion Distillery. The agency won the business through a non-competitive pitch process.
Sloemotion Distillery is a Yorkshire-based craft distillery with its roots firmly in the Yorkshire countryside which it uses to create and inspire its range of spirits. Its premium Hedgerow Spirits range of premium gins and vodka uses foraged ingredients and botanicals found in the countryside around Green Farm in North Yorkshire. Sloemotion founder, Joff Curtoys lead the way in creating a drinks business that had the environment, wildlife and countryside at its heart, and which still celebrates and protects the natural abundance in British hedgerows.
North PR has been appointed to support Sloemotion Distillery’s growth and expansion in the national spirits category under the leadership of its new MD, Neil Spiers who has been brought onboard to work with Founder Joff Curtoys to grow reach and sales. This includes an overhaul of its portfolio which now consist of three independent and unique brands; Hedgerow Sprits, Sloemotion Liqueurs and a new mid-tier Finders Spirits brand,
North PR was founded in 2018 by Asda’s former head of food & BWS PR and FMCG comms expert, Vickie Rogerson to help FMCG brands celebrate and share great food and drink stories. This steely focus and unique food & drink expertise has helped North PR become the go-to consultancy for food and drink brands all over the UK who want to grow their reach, and drive sales.
Neil Spiers, MD Sloemotion Distillery said: “It’s an exciting time for Sloemotion Distillery as we look to grow our business, starting with the development and launch of our new mid-tier drinks brand, Finders Spirits. We wanted to work with a specialist PR agency who understood our unique proposition, which marries craft distilling with a focus on protecting the countryside and can help us tell this story to a wider audience. North PR really impressed us with their creative approach, defined strategy and understanding of the drinks and retail market. We’re really pleased to be working with them.”
Vickie Rogerson, founder and managing director, North PR, says: “Sloemotion Distillery is a truly inspiring business that was ‘green’ long before it became trendy. Add to that a range of delicious gins, vodkas and rums, and it’s a dream client! We are excited to help the business grow from a successful award-winning Yorkshire drinks business, to a successful award-winning national drinks brand. Our first job will be to launch Finders Spirits range to trade and consumers and this may or may not involve lots of taste testing.”
North PR is a specialist food & drink PR consultancy created in the midst of 100s of generalist PR agencies who say they’re food & drink experts but aren’t. It works with FMCG food and drink brands to add expertise, purpose and passion to their communications strategies and enable them to grow both reach and sales. It is lead by Vickie Rogerson who has built a collective of the very best food & drink PR experts, so clients get a full team of knowledgeable and experienced people.
North PR founder Vickie Rogerson has worked with some of the UK’s biggest food and retail brands including seven years heading up the Asda Food & BWS PR team. She also co-founded a successful cheese events business Homage2Fromage which runs fromage-based events across the UK.
Its clients include Drynks Unlimited, an innovative 0% drinks brand, Water in a Box, a sustainable boxed water brand, Lo-Col, a cholesterol reducing cheese, Yorkshire Pudding Pie Company, an award-winning Yorkshire food brand who invented a pie with a Yorkshire pudding crust, and The Mac Factory and Cheese Wheel, London-based cheese restaurant brands.
