Our/Vodka CEO confirms Seattle closure

The CEO and founder of Pernod Ricard-owned “glocal” concept Our/Vodka has confirmed the closure of its Our/Seattle distillery, and hailed the project’s imminent launch in New York, Miami and Houston.

Our/Seattle has closed permanently

The second site to open under the Our/Vodka umbrella, Our/Seattle has now closed permanently due to “crowded marketplace” and a “change” in regulations, according to  CEO and founder Åsa Caap.

Åsa Caap, CEO and founder of Our/Vodka, told The Spirits Business: “I can confirm that we have decided to close the Our/Seattle distillery.

“We were very excited when we signed the lease two and a half years back but things just didn’t turn out as we had hoped.
“It takes a heavy investment to build a distillery and set up a business. It also takes a lot of work to get it running. We know this from the other cities, but in Seattle things were tougher. The marketplace got very crowded, some regulations changed and regardless of our efforts, we just couldn’t make it work, so we had to close down.
“A very tough decision to have to make and for all of us who have put our blood sweet and tears into that distillery, it was a very sad day when we closed.
“The distillery is for sale if someone locally is interested, otherwise we will move the equipment and find a new tenant for the space. It really is a top notch distillery so it would be great to see someone local take it over.”

However, the concept continues to make headway in other cities, with Our/New York, Our/Miami and Our/Houston set to open in coming months.
“Now we have to move on and focus our energy on our other cities where the businesses are growing in a healthy way,” added Caap.
“We are also very excited about our coming openings of Our/New York, Our/Miami and Our/Houston.”

The concept sees Pernod’s vodka arm, Absolut Company, partner with urban micro distilleries in cities across the globe to create a range of different vodkas which, according to each distiller, communicates each city’s personality.

Although every expression will be made to the same recipe and fall under the Our/Vodka brand, each product is said to have its own flavour and style, having been crafted from locally-sourced ingredients.