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ABOUT
"Brands deserve to travel as far as their flavour will carry them."
Lotus & Olive was born from a shared love of craft: terroir, botanicals, people.
We believe a spirit is more than liquid. It is soil and season, stills and hands, patience you can taste. When we hold a bottle, we see a place in a glass and a reason it should be remembered in a bar far from home.
We understand how desirability is built: how a story lands, how price architecture holds, and how trust is earned one conversation at a time.
The difference between something that ships and something that stays is care. Care for the maker’s voice, care for the consumer’s context, care for the long game.
Some of us grew up around stills, others bring fresh eyes. We listen for the field notes and the micro decisions: the cut you argued over, the botanical you insisted on, the ritual that means home. Our work is to carry that intact across borders so that in Tokyo, London, Miami, or Singapore people taste the why, not only the what.
We believe in craft, not hype. In placement, not noise. In doing the unglamorous work so the pour feels inevitable. We care where your bottle lives, who introduces it, how it is served, and what is said about it when you are not in the room. Brands do not travel on pallets alone; they travel on meaning.
If your liquid carries a story, we will help it go further: faithfully, ambitiously, and with the same care you put into every bottle.
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Ben Hutton
Lotus & Olive
Jerome Harlington
EMEA
Jerome Harlington leads EMEA market entry and management for Lotus & Olive. With a foundation at Majestic Wine Plc and Mentzendorff under Champagne Bollinger, he pairs deep category expertise with advisory work for more than 150 chief executives. Jerome designs compliant routes to market, appoints the right distributors, and manages sell in and sell through across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He is CEO of the HWB Group in the UK.
Joy Katharina
US
Joy Katharina Lorck-Schierning leads US market entry and management for Lotus & Olive from Miami. A Buckingham BSc, she blends brand building since 2020 with rum heritage as granddaughter of Norbert Lorck-Schierning of POTT Rum, and family ties to the Appleton Estate Jamaica. Joy designs compliant routes to market, appoints importers and distributors, and manages sell in and sell through across the US. She is COO of HWB Group in the UK.
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Ben Hutton
APAC
Ben Hutton leads Asia Pacific market entry and management for Lotus & Olive. He is a regional scaler who has built and led routes to market for global and founder led brands across Southeast Asia, Greater China, Japan, Korea, India, and ANZ. Ben maps regulation, appoints right importers and distributors, and manages pricing, key account sell in, and sell through across Asia Pacific, focused on growth. He is the founder of the Hutton Agency.
FOR WESTERN MAKERS
APAC is the sensible next step for premium craft spirits—and here’s why:
Across Asia there’s a proven appetite for Western provenance—heritage distilling, protected origins, distinctive regional styles—when brands show up correctly. Premium discovery now spans cocktail bars and luxury hotels as well as specialist bottle shops and premium supermarkets/specialty grocers, with affluent expat communities and globally minded local consumers supporting price integrity and repeat purchase in hubs like Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo. An APAC footprint compounds global equity (“listed in Singapore/HK/Tokyo” travels with press and distributors), diversifies currency and demand, and taps complementary seasonality (Lunar New Year, mid-autumn, Q4 tourism).
Where Lotus & Olive adds value: we ensure the story is told in-market—menu-ready one-liners, shelf talkers, bilingual assets, locally resonant serve repertoires, and seasonal campaigns—while we handle the senior, hands-on execution most founders can’t hire in-house: aligning licensed import partners and premium distributors across on-trade, specialist retail and premium supermarkets, getting in the room, moving samples, negotiating terms, and keeping the commercial drumbeat until placements become reorders. (Beer added selectively in proven cold-chain markets.)
APAC: Spirits ≈ $298B → $382B by 2030 (+5.1% CAGR) ● APAC: Premium spirits in ~+10.9% CAGR (’24–’30) ● APAC: Craft spirits surging: +34% CAGR; gin fastest ● APAC: India & SE Asia = next bright growth spots (offsetting China) ● APAC cocktail/RTD market set to nearly triple by 2030 ● APAC Ecommerce +4% value in 2024 ●
FOR APAC MAKERS
EMEA is the sensible next step for premium craft spirits—and here’s why:
Europe concentrates the kind of buyers who pay for provenance and story: specialist retailers, cocktail bars with trained teams, and importers who know how to build a premium brand rather than just shift cases. That ecosystem supports higher price realisation in premium segments than many home markets can sustain, and it does it across multiple, resilient channels—on-trade, specialty off-trade, and airport/travel retail—so your brand isn’t tied to one route. A European footprint also compounds brand equity back home: “listed in London/Paris/Berlin” is a powerful proof point with consumers, press, and future distributors in other regions. Strategically, EMEA diversifies demand and currency (EUR/GBP) so you’re less exposed to a single economy, policy shift, or consumer cycle; it also smooths production through complementary seasonality (summer cocktails and Q4 gifting peaks in Europe vs your domestic peak periods). Europe’s regulatory framework, while exacting, signals quality and compliance once achieved—making later expansion easier.
Finally, flavour curiosity is high: European buyers actively seek distinctive Asian botanicals and techniques, provided the pack, pricing and story are export-ready. In short, if you’ve got a defensible margin ladder, the supply to support reorders, and the will to show up in the trade, Europe doesn’t just add volume—it amplifies value, resilience, and reputation in a way most domestic-only strategies can’t.
Europe imports €9.7B spirits yearly ● EMEA: Craft spirits booming, +20% growth ● EMEA: Premium segment racing to $400B ● EMEA: Gin leads as fastest-growing spirit ● EMEA: Low/no-alcohol up +10% CAGR ● EMEA Consumers crave authentic brand stories ● APAC botanicals and APAC fruits Trending in EMEA ●
SERVICES: MARKET ACCESS
From first fit to steady reorders, we orchestrate everything that makes a launch stick.
If you don’t yet have presence in APAC | EMEA | US, we act as your market-entry lead — opening doors, creating first fit, and orchestrating everything that makes a launch stick. From that first pour to steady reorders, we manage the end-to-end process so your brand doesn’t just arrive, it takes root.
We start with fit — sensory read, hero serves, price-to-position — and then build the compliance dossier, coordinate legal sign-off, and model landed costs from EXW to DDP. We map and score distributors, lead outreach and term sheets through an appointed importer, and lock the first POs. From there, we architect the channel: hero bars and hotels, specialist bottle shops, premium supermarkets and gourmet grocers, plus e-commerce and marketplaces.
But we don’t stop at listings. We execute activations that move liquid — menu placements, in-store tastings, seasonal gifting, staff training — all delivered with the right permits and under local rules. You get bilingual toolkits (story, specs, POSM, photography) and a no-surprises launch calendar. And we stay on the hook long after launch: forecasting, replenishment, store checks, and monthly scorecards tracking rate of sale, menu counts, weighted distribution, feature ROI, and reorder cadence, all backed by QBRs and course corrections.
We don’t act as Importer of Record, customs broker, or legal/tax advisor. Instead, we orchestrate licensed partners so placement, pricing, and story stay on-brief — until the pour becomes a habit.
Our measure of success is simple: repeat orders and widened distribution.
SERVICES: COMMERCIAL LEAD
If you already have a presence — we’re here to carry your values, protect your story, and drive real growth.
We are you — living your values, carrying your story, and sharing your dreams in some of the most competitive regions on earth. But when your business is so far from home, how can you be sure it’s truly being driven the way you intended?
That’s where we step in.
If you don’t yet have presence in APAC | EMEA | US, we act as your fractional sales lead — opening doors, building relationships, and championing your brand on the ground without the cost of a permanent team.
If you already have a distributor, we bring the focus, love, and persistence that ensures they deliver. We equip them with the tools they need, provide real-time answers, supply sales assets, and show up for the vital meetings where your brand must be represented
In short: if you need to build presence, we create it. If you have partners, we make them stronger. Either way, you stay close to your brand — with the confidence that your growth is being driven by people who care as much as you do.
Because in territories far from home, success isn’t about simply showing up. It’s about presence, passion, and persistence — and that’s what we live and breathe on your behalf.
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Success Stories
Ronda Keni, MN
2 Weeks Ago
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Liat Tortal, NJ
2 Months Ago
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John Traves, ON
1 Months Ago
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Lotus & Olive makes export-ready brands market-ready and placed.
Compliance Mapping
Quick audit of liquid, label and pack against target-market rules. We confirm spirit category, ABV and label copy, check pack specs and importer/excise steps for UK/EU, then GCC/US. Deliverables: red-amber-green scorecard with fixes, timings and a testing plan
Pack, Pricing & Pitch
Refine bottle, closure and case sizes, localise pack and claims, and build a margin-sound price ladder from ex-works to RRP. We sharpen the buyer story and hero serves. Deliverables: pack notes, pricing model, one-page brand card and buyer-deck copy.
Sell-In & Management
Shortlist and approach best-fit importers/distributors, run buyer meetings and negotiate terms, then manage onboarding. We plan first listings and promotions. Deliverables: 8–12 targets/market, outreach schedule, heads of terms and a 90-day launch plan.
MAKE IT POUR
Ready to launch / list?
Tell us who you are—brand, distributor, or retailer—and the markets you care about. Share a few details on your product/portfolio, target countries, and timing. If you have a deck, label mock-up, or line card, include a link. We read every message and reply within two business days with next steps and a proposed first call.
All enquiries are handled confidentially.
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