While UK airports, such as Heathrow, Gatwick, Cardiff and Bristol, have been core to Penderyn’s duty free and travel retail business up until now, exporting is the Welsh whisky distiller’s top priority as Stephen Davies, Chief Executive, Penderyn Distillery tells TRBusiness.

He says that exhibiting at TRMarketplace will help the company to increase its presence and footprint internationally.

“We currently export to around 40 countries, but our presence in travel retail outside of the UK is very limited so we really see this as an opportunity to put that right and to grow.”

Penderyn as a distillery is 20 years old this year, so it no longer has the problem of procuring more mature whisky, says Davies. “It’s quite an exciting time for us; especially as we have won a number of prestigious awards recently including 1 Double Gold and 2 Gold Medals at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2020.”

Despite the impacts of Covid-19, Davies insists that travel retail will still be central to Penderyn’s international expansion. He also believes that premium, niche and limited bottlings will be more sought after in a post-covid world; good news for a craft distiller with an already enviable reputation for its malts.

One of the distillery’s biggest accolades to date came in the final quarter of 2019 when the Penderyn Madeira Cask was named European Whisky of the Year 2020 in Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible in October of last year.