Jamie Koh founded Singapore’s Brass Lion Distillery and launched its flagship Singapore Dry Gin in 2018. The spirits company was the first micro-distillery in the Asian country and has continued to perform strongly.
Branding is everything
Building a strong brand is more than just coming up with a logo and a catchy name – it’s about crafting a distinct identity that resonates with consumers.
Before opening Singapore’s first fully fledged micro-distillery in 2018, Jamie Koh (above) spent six years learning the art of distillation and securing a distilling licence, a feat in itself as government agencies were unfamiliar with the concept.
“It took years to develop the brand, because we weren’t just launching a gin; we were building a Singaporean distillery from scratch,” she explains. “There was no roadmap for this, so we had to define what Brass Lion stood for.”
Koh’s food and beverage experience – which includes opening Chupitos Shots Bar in Clarke Quay and The Beast Southern Kitchen & Bourbon Bar – coupled with her travels around the world, fed into the vision for Brass Lion. The aim, she says, was to create a “truly Singaporean” gin brand using traditional methods, so that Brass Lion could carve a niche in the competitive category.
Her starting point was the construction of a custom-made 150-litre copper still with five bubble plates that allow her to determine how pure she wants the spirit and how much flavour she wants from each botanical. The still took six months to make.
Quality is the best marketing tool
While flashy marketing campaigns can generate buzz, it’s the quality of the product that keeps customers coming back. Koh worked closely with a master distiller in Germany to refine the product several times to make a liquid of which she was “very proud”.
“We didn’t want to just put out a product for the sake of it,” she says. “We wanted to create something exceptional. The effort we put into sourcing the best ingredients and refining our distillation process paid off when we started winning international awards.”
Brass Lion’s debut expression, Singapore Dry Gin, contains 22 botanicals, with all but the juniper berries sourced from within 5km of the distillery. The business, Koh adds, still does “a lot of things by hand, because we feel that makes for a better product”.
Authentic storytelling matters
Consumers today crave authenticity – Brass Lion looks to tick this box by keeping its gins rooted in Singaporean heritage.
“Singapore has such a rich biodiversity – I wanted to incorporate that into our spirits,” notes Koh. Butterfly pea flowers give Brass Lion’s Butterfly Pea Gin iteration its “striking colour”, while its take on sloe gin, produced using Chinese hawthorn berries, draws inspiration from the childhood treat of haw flakes – a sweet and tangy candy made from the fruit. They “bring nostalgic flavours that many Singaporeans grew up with to our Hawthorn Gin”, says Koh.
Embracing local elements has enabled Koh to foster an emotional connection with customers and take them on a “nostalgic journey through the flavours of youth”.
Focus on local early on
While international expansion is a goal for many brands, Koh stresses the importance of first establishing a strong presence in your home market. Brass Lion prioritised local partnerships, collaborating with Singapore Airlines, as well as becoming the official gin for the singapore sling cocktail in its place of origin, the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel.
“It was crucial for us to be recognised in Singapore first,” Koh explains. “If you can’t win over your own market, it’s going to be an uphill battle overseas. We needed to have people come in and understand the brand, and I guess you can’t really call yourself a local brand if people in your country don’t know about you.”
This strategy allowed the brand to grow organically, striking a balance between its core expressions and new product launches – including a venture into the first-ever Singapore-made single malt whisky in 2023.
Adaptability is key to survival
No business is immune to change, and the pandemic tested Brass Lion’s resilience. With Covid-19 disrupting the on-premise channel, Koh pivoted quickly. “When we first started, we were huge in the on-trade,” she says. “Then, obviously, the on-trade died, so we did much more retail and e-commerce.
“Things have almost evened out in the on-trade, but in general, it’s also starting to see a slowdown,” she says, emphasising the importance to stay light on your feet and in the know around your industry.
A last word of advice to aspiring start-ups? Maintain control of your brand. Being a self-funded business was an advantage for Brass Lion in this respect.
“We didn’t have external investors pressuring us, so we could take the time to make the right strategic moves,” Koh concludes.
