Page 9 - Chase Case Study

However, in 2010 half of Chase’s turnover came from

outside the UK with the expectation that this will steadily
increase as US distribution through a deal with Pelican

Brands will give the company access to a market that

accounts for around 60pc of all premium vodka sales.

Chase capitalised on the fact that the potatoes are all grown

in the farm's own fields. They are harvested and then sent
to the potato grading shed, a giant structure, where rotating

teams of manual workers labour from 6am to 8pm, seven

days a week, where they sort through lorry-loads of

potatoes to remove the soil and stones and visually inspect
about 200 tonnes each day. In the beginning the largest

potatoes were used for crisps and were sent on to Tyrrells

while the smallest were used for seed potatoes. In the past,
the middle-sized potatoes were sold as animal feed but they

are now used for vodka. They are added to water,

fermented, and then distilled and bottled. It all takes place

on site.

The method is indicative of the distillery’s vodka-making

process, which is very much hands on.

The potatoes are harvested, peeled and chopped, added
enzymes then break them down into greyish mash. They are

then left in a fermentation vessel for about a week where

the glucose converts to alcohol. The mash is then pumped

into the top of a stripping column; as it falls down the
column steam is introduced which strips out the alcohol.

Twelve tons of mash produces about 1,800 litres of base

alcohol.