Page 24 - Chase Case Study

Ultimately, apples might even replace potatoes altogether at

Chase Distillery. The business logic is that apples do not
require replanting every year. But there is also a personal

angle.

"I should say that I love potatoes, but I don't," Chase

admits. "In fact, I could quite easily say I hate them:

potatoes have upset me, made me cry, and given me a bad
back."

"the business has to keep growing and I'm not a mass-market
person", said the man who refused to sell his crisps in Tesco

so the brand premium would not be undermined by

discounting.

Chase was also exploring the possibility of manufacturing

potato-based biobutanol believing that the waste left over

from his distillery could be used to make a high-grade

vehicle fuel suitable for replacing conventional unleaded
petrol.

“We have known for a long time that potato starch is an

excellent source of bio ethanol but this new scheme will
tap the resources left behind in distillery waste,” said

Chase. “There has been research completed at Edinburgh

Napier University that has demonstrated that ‘pot ale’ (the
fluids left behind from the distilling process) can be

fermented into biobutanol. I don’t see why we can’t do the

same in Herefordshire.”

Quod nocet, saepe docet: What Harms, Often Teaches