From a Plant Shop Backroom to Scotland's Best Startup: The Remarkable Rise of Tailored Spirits Co.
There is a particular kind of ambition that doesn't announce itself loudly. It shows up early, operates quietly, and lets the results do the talking. That's the story of Tailored Spirits Co., the Leith-based bespoke whisky firm that in the span of roughly two and a half years went from improvised office space in the back of a plant shop to winning Scotland's Overall StartUp of the Year 2026 at the UK StartUp Awards. For the American whisky enthusiast watching the global Scotch scene evolve in real time, the company's ascent tells you something important — not just about one ambitious Edinburgh business, but about where the entire premium whisky market is heading.
Tailored Spirits Co., founded in January 2024, claimed the title of Scotland's Overall StartUp of the Year 2026 at the UK StartUp Awards. The company also secured the title of Scotland's Food & Drink StartUp of the Year, marking a milestone in its rise since launching in 2024. Winning two trophies in a single evening from a competition that spans every sector of Scotland's commercial landscape — not just drink, but technology, retail, healthcare, and beyond — makes the achievement stand out even more. This wasn't a company that impressed only within the narrow world of whisky. It impressed everyone in the room.
Who Is Tailored Spirits Co.?
Founded by whisky entrepreneurs Adam Harding, Carl Johnstone and Tom Costello, Tailored Spirits Co. was created to give whisky enthusiasts, collectors, businesses and private clients access to a part of the Scotch whisky industry that has traditionally remained out of reach. Each of the three co-founders brings a distinct discipline to the table. Tom Costello leads brand and creative, Carl Johnstone handles commercial and operations, and Adam Harding drives spirits, sales and strategy. That division of labor — craft, commerce, and liquid expertise — gives the company the kind of balanced foundation that solo founders often lack.
Rather than operating as a traditional independent bottler, the business positions itself as an "experience-led whisky partner." The distinction matters enormously in a crowded market. Traditional independent bottlers source a cask, bottle it, slap a label on it, and sell it at retail. Tailored Spirits inverts that relationship entirely. The company gives clients the opportunity to build a whisky from the ground up — selecting single casks, influencing maturation, creating bespoke branding, and producing a finished bottle with its own story. The client isn't buying a product; they're directing the creation of one. That nuance is exactly what separates Tailored Spirits from what came before it.
The company manages all stages of the process, including cask sourcing, wood maturation, label design, and bottling. The company provides end-to-end services under one roof, spanning cask sourcing — from new-make spirit to rare Scotch, as well as rum, cognac and tequila — through branding, short-run bottling and global delivery. That breadth of product scope means a hospitality group commissioning a house whisky for an upscale New York hotel gets the same white-glove service as a private collector in Tokyo hunting a long-aged single malt from a storied Speyside distillery.
A Startup Born in a Plant Shop
The founding story of Tailored Spirits Co. has the texture of something from a business school case study — or at the very least, a very good pub conversation. Co-founder Tom Costello has been refreshingly candid about where the company actually started. Costello said: "We started out in the back of my wife's plant shop, with our newborn son being passed between us in between feeds and naps. None of this would have happened without the support of our families, staff, and partners."
That image — three entrepreneurs crowded into a makeshift office surrounded by houseplants, juggling infant care and whisky sourcing simultaneously — captures something genuine about early-stage startups that polished corporate narratives rarely do. It also helps explain why the award win resonated so personally with the team. "What started in the back of my wife's plant shop has grown into a business serving clients across the world," Costello reflected on the evening the trophies were handed out. The distance between those two facts, measured in months rather than years, is what made Scotland's judges take notice.
Founded in 2024 by Tom Costello, Carl Johnstone, and Adam Harding, Tailored Spirits Co. was created to bridge the gap between large-scale whisky production and private cask ownership. That gap has always existed in the Scotch industry. The distilleries own the warehouses. The brokers control the cask market. The private buyer, even a well-resourced one, has historically been an outsider looking in — dependent on middlemen, limited in their choices, and often unclear on exactly what they were getting. Tailored Spirits was built to change that dynamic and to do so in a way that felt genuinely premium rather than transactional.
The Numbers Behind the Win
Awards are won on merit, but judges need hard evidence to back up their instincts. In Tailored Spirits' case, the numbers were impossible to argue with. The judging panel praised the company for its "rapid growth and distinctive approach to creating bespoke spirits for clients and brands," highlighting its £2.35 million turnover, growing team of eight and strong early commercial progress. For a company that didn't exist before January 2024, that revenue figure is extraordinary by any measure. Scotland's food and drink sector is fiercely competitive, populated by long-established distilleries with centuries of brand equity. Breaking through that landscape with a £2.35 million turnover inside two years of operation is the kind of stat that makes even veteran industry observers pause.
The company now employs a team of eight in the city and exports custom-made spirits to 14 countries around the world. That international reach is particularly significant for American whisky enthusiasts trying to understand the company's trajectory. Scotch has a deeply loyal global following, but building a network of active clients across 14 countries — not just selling bottles, but managing full bespoke production partnerships — requires a level of operational sophistication that most startups don't develop in their first decade, let alone their first two years. The business reported £2.35m turnover in 2025 and has doubled its team since launch. Projects now span the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Following its record year, the company expanded its roster with several new hires. Rachel MacRae joined the project management and delivery team, award-winning creative specialist Hannah Sneddon came on board, and Ciara Hutchison Reid was appointed business development and private client manager. Structured hiring like this — specialists brought in at precisely the right moment for the right functions — reflects a management team that's thinking like an established company while still operating with startup speed.
What the Judges Said
The feedback from the judging panel was pointed and specific, the kind of language that goes beyond polite recognition. The judges said: "The business has turned a specialist product idea into a serious food and drink operation. We recognised a startup with impressive execution, clear market demand and the capability to build a premium Scottish drinks business with wider growth potential." "Impressive execution" is rarely the phrase judges reach for when describing a two-year-old company. It implies that Tailored Spirits didn't just have a good idea — it delivered on the idea at a level that matched or exceeded what larger, more resourced competitors would manage.
The awards recognise the UK's most exciting emerging businesses and celebrate founders demonstrating innovation, commercial success and growth potential. The UK StartUp Awards are not a niche trade prize — they sweep across every sector of the British economy. Professor Dylan Jones-Evans, Founder of the UK StartUp Awards, said: "All of the winners show exactly why the UK startup economy remains so exciting. They are not just coming up with clever ideas; they are building businesses with real purpose, commercial credibility and the potential to scale." That framing — real purpose plus commercial credibility — is the combination that the Tailored Spirits model exemplifies. The concept of bespoke whisky creation isn't new, but turning it into a scalable, globally distributed, premium service business with real revenue is a different proposition entirely.
The Founders Speak
Carl Johnstone, the co-founder responsible for commercial operations, was characteristically direct in his response to the award. He said: "When we founded Tailored Spirits Co., our vision was to create the world's leading bespoke whisky company, offering clients access to exceptional single-cask Scotch whiskies through a truly personalised experience. These awards are a testament to the dedication and hard work of our amazing team, the trust our clients place in us, and the incredible support of our partners, suppliers and the wider Scotti[sh whisky and entrepreneurial communities]."
Johnstone was also careful to frame the win as a milestone rather than a destination. He said: "Building a business is never done alone, and we're hugely grateful to everyone who has played a part in our journey so far. While we're honoured by this recognition and proud of what we've achieved, we firmly believe this is just the beginning of the Tailored Spirits Co."
Adam Harding, who leads the spirits, sales, and strategy side of the business, has been even more explicit about the broader cultural shift that Tailored Spirits is riding. "We're seeing a shift in how people engage with whisky — it's no longer just about buying a bottle, but about creating something truly personal," Harding has said. That observation cuts to the heart of why Tailored Spirits resonates with its clients in a way that simply buying a premium bottle off a shelf does not. Ownership, authorship, and personalization have become the defining values of luxury consumption across virtually every category — watches, automobiles, clothing — and whisky is no exception.
The Experimental Series: Tailored Spirits' Public-Facing Identity
While the bespoke client work represents the commercial core of the business, Tailored Spirits Co. has also built a public-facing product line that allows consumers to engage with its philosophy at retail. The Experimental Series invites drinkers to explore the diverse flavours of Scotland's most characterful distilleries through limited-edition micro-releases, each with its own distinct story and finish.
The latest line-up introduces Experiment 4 (Aultmore 15 Year Old), Experiment 5 (Echo - Benriach 13 Year Old), Experiment 6 (Fort - Dailuaine 13 Year Old), and the Special Experiment 1 Black Label (Anam - Springbank 23 Year Old). For American single malt enthusiasts, that last entry is worth pausing on. Springbank, produced at Campbeltown's legendary Springbank Distillery, is among the most sought-after and collector-driven whiskies in the world. Offering a 23-year-old expression in a limited small-batch format speaks to Tailored Spirits' access to exceptional cask inventory — access that most startups couldn't claim.
Inspired by vintage ski resort tickets and scientific lab bottles, the Experimental Series design has become a collector's signature. Each bottle features a detachable 'lab ticket' marked with a unique code, allowing enthusiasts to track every experiment. The design language here is deliberate and sophisticated. Whisky bottle design has been increasingly used as a differentiating tool among independent bottlers, but Tailored Spirits' visual identity for the Experimental Series gives it the feel of a collectible object rather than simply a vessel for liquid. That matters to the American collector market, where presentation and provenance carry enormous weight.
The company believes that single cask spirits are not just about heritage, but also curiosity, exploration and innovation. The Experimental Series is an expression of that belief, an invitation to explore. The tagline the company operates under — "From the warehouse to your house" — is deceptively simple. It communicates the full scope of what Tailored Spirits actually does: it closes the physical and psychological distance between a sleeping cask in a Scottish bonded warehouse and the finished, personalized bottle that a client holds in their hands anywhere in the world.
The Bespoke Whisky Market: Context and Momentum
Tailored Spirits didn't create the appetite for bespoke single cask whisky — that appetite has been building for years, driven by the same forces reshaping luxury markets globally. The bespoke whisky segment has seen growing global interest in recent years, driven by consumer demand for personalized, experience-led luxury products. The trend has opened opportunities for agile startups operating outside traditional distillery or independent bottler models. What Tailored Spirits understood, and moved on faster than its competitors, is that the old gatekeeper model — where access to exceptional single casks required either deep industry connections or a willingness to navigate opaque broker networks — was ready to be disrupted.
Such ownership experiences have seen a rise in popularity in recent years, with personalised items and experiences often sought after over straightforward retail purchases. At Tailored Spirits Co., clients work directly with the team on every aspect of the experience, often culminating in a private tasting. That private tasting element is worth emphasizing. For the American whisky enthusiast who has spent years attending distillery tours and barrel-pick events at Kentucky bourbon houses, the appeal of a parallel experience in Scotland — one where you're not just selecting from a pre-approved list of barrels but actually shaping the maturation path of your own cask — is immediately obvious.
The Leith-based company cited rising global demand for private-client whisky bottling experiences as a key driver of growth. The geography matters here too. Leith, Edinburgh's historic port district, has undergone a sustained cultural and commercial renaissance over the past decade. With Leith continuing to establish itself as one of Scotland's most exciting destinations for food, drink and creative businesses, Tailored Spirits Co.'s latest accolade is another example of the innovation emerging from the capital's vibrant waterfront. Operating out of Leith puts Tailored Spirits at the crossroads of Scotland's food and drink heritage and its emerging creative economy — a location that reinforces the brand's identity as both authentically Scottish and distinctly forward-looking.
Beyond Scotland: The Road to the UK National Final
The double success means the Edinburgh company will now go on to represent Scotland at the UK StartUp Awards national final later this year, where it will compete against regional winners from across the UK as part of Ideas Fest. The national winners in each category are announced at Ideas Fest 2026, which is taking place in Champneys, Tring, Hertfordshire, where 6,000 entrepreneurs, investors, and business leaders gather. The national stage puts Tailored Spirits in direct competition with the best new businesses from England, Wales, and Northern Ireland — companies from technology, finance, sustainability, and beyond. Winning the Scottish regional crown against all sectors was one thing. Taking that fight to the national stage is the next chapter.
Tom Costello's reaction to the prospect of representing Scotland nationally had the same unaffected quality as his account of the plant shop origins. He said: "It's mad to think how far we've come. We started out in the back of my wife's plant shop, with our newborn son being passed between us in between feeds and naps. None of this would have happened without the support of our families, staff, and partners. Now we are genuinely excited to represent Scotland at the national finals."
An Award-Season Company: The Stelios Prize and Beyond
The Scotland StartUp of the Year honor is actually the latest in a string of external validations that Tailored Spirits has accumulated in rapid succession. Edinburgh-based bespoke Scotch whisky business Tailored Spirits Co. won third place at the Stelios Foundation UK Young Entrepreneur Awards 2026, securing a £50,000 prize. Co-founders Adam Harding and Carl Johnstone received the award in London from Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of easyJet. The annual awards program distributed £300,000 in total and recognizes the UK's most promising young entrepreneurs aged 34 and under.
Tailored Spirits stood out among 61 applicants for its rapid growth, international reach, and positioning within the luxury whisky market. Winners are selected based on their potential to scale and create jobs within the UK economy, with a minimum revenue threshold of £500,000. Clearing that threshold comfortably — and doing so in a sector as capital-intensive and relationship-driven as premium spirits — demonstrated that Tailored Spirits was not coasting on a clever concept. It was building a real, revenue-generating operation at a pace that commanded serious attention from serious evaluators.
Harding captured the significance of that external recognition with characteristic precision. "To be recognized by one of the UK's most respected entrepreneurs at such an early stage in our journey is an incredibly proud moment. This endorsement strengthens our position globally and supports our ambition to grow the business further."
What's Next: Growth Plans and Global Ambitions
Tailored Spirits has announced plans for continued expansion in 2026. These include team growth, a move to a new brand home in Edinburgh, and upcoming high-profile private client projects. A dedicated brand home in Edinburgh would be a significant step — it signals the company's readiness to create a physical, experiential presence that matches its digital and commercial ambitions. For the kind of luxury client that Tailored Spirits courts, a proper home base isn't a vanity project; it's a proof of concept, a place where bespoke commissions can begin with a handshake and a dram rather than just an email exchange.
The company aims to double revenue in 2026 while continuing to grow its international client base. Doubling from a £2.35 million baseline — to roughly £4.7 million — in a single year would be aggressive for any company in any sector. For a premium, handcrafted, relationship-driven spirits business, it's an extraordinarily bold target. But the trajectory so far gives little reason to doubt the ambition. Over the past year, the company has delivered commissions for clients in Singapore, the United States, and across Europe, suggesting that the pipeline of international business is already substantial and diversified enough to support that growth without over-reliance on any single market.
Carl Johnstone has stated: "We're moving from being seen as a start-up to an established luxury player." That transition — from plucky startup to credible luxury brand — is one of the hardest pivots in business. It requires not just revenue growth but a shift in how clients, partners, and the broader market perceive you. The Scotland StartUp of the Year award doesn't just validate the company's commercial performance; it accelerates exactly that perception shift, providing the kind of third-party endorsement that marketing budgets alone cannot manufacture.
What It Means for the American Whisky Enthusiast
American whisky culture has evolved dramatically over the past decade. The bourbon boom trained a generation of drinkers to care deeply about provenance, production method, and the story behind the liquid in the glass. Many of those same drinkers have graduated to exploring Scotch with the same level of engagement — not just reading tasting notes, but seeking out single casks, following independent bottlers, and looking for ways to get closer to the source. Tailored Spirits Co. speaks directly to that evolved palate and that sense of participatory ownership.
The fact that projects now span the United States, Europe, and Asia means that American clients are already engaging with the Tailored Spirits model. For the bourbon drinker who has done a private barrel pick at a Kentucky distillery and wants to experience the closest Scottish equivalent — but in a format that goes even further, allowing influence over maturation and complete control over branding — Tailored Spirits is offering something genuinely without peer in the current market.
The company's philosophy is to provide exceptional industry quality services, at an individual scale, to passionate owners of single cask Scotch whisky and premium spirits. It streamlines the complex process of spirits production, leveraging its business scale to benefit each private client individually, allowing clients to see the true value of the spirits they own. That last phrase — "the true value of the spirits they own" — carries more weight than it might initially seem. The secondary Scotch market has demonstrated repeatedly that exceptional single casks appreciate in ways that no standard retail purchase can match. A bespoke, well-sourced, properly aged single cask Scotch whisky, bottled under a client's own label with full provenance documentation, carries both sentimental and financial value that compound over time.
Tailored Spirits Co. is two years old and it has already cleared £2.35 million in revenue, won Scotland's top startup prize, placed in one of the UK's most prestigious young entrepreneur competitions, and built a client base across 14 countries. If the next two years look anything like the first two, this company will be a household name in the global premium spirits world long before most of Scotland's legacy independent bottlers see it coming. For American whisky enthusiasts who want to be ahead of that curve — and who appreciate a great origin story — the time to pay attention to Tailored Spirits Co. is right now.
