Name: Alice Pearson
Age: 26
Job title: Operations director
Company & location: Cotswolds Distillery in Stourton, Warwickshire
Education: IBD general certificate and diploma in distilling
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? As a younger child, I wanted to be a teacher, but as I went through secondary school creative subjects really took over for me, along with a strong interest in technology. I had planned to pursue a career in theatre set design or similar after sixth form… until I joined the bottling line at the distillery over the summer.
“It was intimidating to learn under that kind of pressure, but I knew that whisky was my core passion”
Why did you decide to go for a career in food & drink? Things very much fell into place by accident.
I had joined the bottling line after finishing my A Level exams as a summer job, to give myself time to figure out the next steps. Cut to eight years later and my passion for drinks manufacturing has grown exponentially and a career happened almost by accident. In hindsight, it makes sense as making whisky is the perfect blend of creativity, engineering and science, which are all things I love.
Explain your job to us in a sentence (or two): Making sure our operations team have what they need to deliver our wide range of products to our highest standard, all over the world. Maintaining the beautiful site where we are based for visitor experiences, and perfecting our Cotswolds flavour through new product development and whisky blending.
What does a typical day look like for you? I am based in the countryside on our distillery site, where I could be splitting my time between tasting and blending, fixing equipment, optimising our bottling line, or pitching into barrel work to create our Signature whisky. No two days are the same and I work at every level in the business.
Tell us how you went about applying for your job: With my career development happening within the same business, I have been lucky to dodge the nerves of a completely new interview.
However, it is a case of actions speak louder than words, so the tough part was proving my ability and consistently over-delivering every year in order to make each next step.
My biggest leap was internally applying for distillery manager in the whisky distillery, while based in the lab developing gin recipes. I had to prove that I could run a whisky distillery with very little hands-on experience on the stills. It was intimidating to learn under that kind of pressure, but I knew that whisky was my core passion.
What’s the best part about working for a food & drink company? I am a big believer that enjoying food and drink can be an integral part of the joy of being human, and it often sits at the centre of our desire to come together. Through flavour and story-telling, we can be a part of that for people and that is a great feeling.
And what’s the biggest misconception people have about working in food & drink? There are certainly misconceptions around how tastings are ‘all fun, no work’!
I find tastings fascinating but equally challenging and tiring. It is most certainly work to analyse both the product, and your own perceptions of the product, in such great detail and feel the pressure to deliver something special.
What advice would you give to other young people looking to get into the food & drink industry? I would always encourage people to get the practical experience first and to learn the theory as they go. Having the balance of both is helpful from the start, and there is a lot of emphasis on theory, which can then be hard to translate into a practical role.
What’s your ultimate career dream? I love working with single malt whisky, but it feels only fair that I should explore the world of rye, bourbon, wine, and everything else! I would use that as an excuse to get some travelling done too.
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