‘I want to offer work opportunities’

Ellen Wakelam runs a “small but ambitious” distillery on the west coast of Wales, and for her the Kickstart Scheme is a way to give local youngsters valuable experience.

The In the Welsh Wind Distillery makes spirits, including eight awardwinning gins, and is now developing a fully grainto-glass Welsh whisky using barley grown by local farmers.

The company has five full-time employees and will be adding to that with its Kickstart recruits. “We’ve been approved for four placements,” explains

Ellen, 37, from near Cardigan.

“The first of these will be a general distillery hand. We think we can offer a young person a really good understanding of every aspect of the business – from the technical side of distilling to things like as bottling, labelling, customer service, marketing and business insight.”

Ellen knows the importance of having job opportunities in the area and that’s one of the reasons why she was so keen to base her business in west Wales. “I grew up here and trained as a teacher, but had to leave to find work,” she says. “One of the main drivers for setting up a business back here was to be able to offer employment opportunities

young people.”