Focus on: naming our whisky

In this month’s ‘Focus on’ we’ll be talking you through how we got to our name: Filey Bay.  

One of the best things about working for a small company is that it’s personal. Every member of staff (and their families!) is so closely connected to the business that everyone has thoughts and ideas. This is great, especially for things like names.

What to call the whisky had been up for debate for years. We went back and forth about whether to use the distillery name as the lead (as per the majority of Scottish distilleries) or whether to have a totally separate name for the whisky (as per many world whisky distilleries).

Many, many, many ideas were suggested, rejected, laughed at, edited and evolved. There were lots of directions and lots of discussions. In the end though, we found we kept coming back to the coast and the bay. We can see the sea from the distillery window and if you keep driving up the road past the distillery, you come to the top of the hill and an incredible view of the bay laid out below.

So much of our area’s heritage is connected to the bay and the sea, not least the fisherman in their cobles (boats), launching from Filey every day still. (Interesting fact, Coble Landing in Filey is named after these boats, not after cobble stones). There are fascinating stories of shipwrecks and rescues, and a few tragic stories where ships couldn’t be saved. Walking along the bay you’re surrounded by history – from the wrecks visible at Reighton and Speeton, to the pillboxes that lined the cliffs watching for invasion, through to Billy Butlin’s white art deco house on the cliff at Primrose Valley.

Jenni, Marketing Manager

For us as people, the bay is also our playground. Swimming, paddling, running, sailing; go down on a weekend or early in the morning, and you’ll often find one of the team there. Co-founder David and his wife Rebecca regularly kayak from the Brigg down to Flamborough Head, and Tom and his wife Gill rent a beach hut on Filey’s Royal Parade most winters, enjoying flasks of coffee and a dram of our whisky with a stunning view. (In fact, on the day we launched, Filey Bay was also named by Trip Advisor one of the best beaches in the world for families.)

So the name Filey Bay felt relevant and right for our Single Malt range; understandable for a wider world market but crucially close to home and really representative of who we are as people. And, of course, we already had the gannet as our brand mascot.

 We tested it out amongst friends and family (as well as one or two strangers), and there was unanimous agreement that it was the right choice.

(Don’t worry, we still have a great list in our back pocket for future projects but you’ll have to wait and see what those are).

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