North East cider brand on the rise after entrepreneurial masterclasses

The online course, which starts in January 2025, aims to equip aspiring local entrepreneurs and early-stage business owners in the food, drink, and tourism sectors with essential knowledge and skills to start and grow their ventures.

Christian Stolte, who successfully launched his own alcoholic beverage company, Seidear, attended one of the previous programmes and has highlighted the added value that he experienced by participating.

He said: “It was very interesting and delightful to join the RGU course... Participants came from diverse backgrounds with various goals coming together, making the networking opportunities tremendous.

“What I liked about the course was the flexibility. There were some webinars, there were some in-person meetings and some homework, it was a big mix. It is often difficult to fit these [type of] courses into your own schedule.

“I also thought the facilitators were good at accommodating different needs and ideas and letting us roam freely on all kinds of crazy thoughts and reflections. It’s a very valuable thing for people to do to bounce off ideas and share and learn from people… It was a very good course for me.”

Spanning three weeks, the short course includes six online evening workshops in addition to one-to-one in-person surgeries in the North East.

Since attending the programme, Seider has went on to win at the 2023 Scottish Excellence Awards for the ‘Beer and Cider Product of the Year’ and the North East Scotland Food & Drink Awards 2023 for the ‘Best Brewed Product’.

The firm creates Champaigne-method apple cider, working with the National Trust and using apples from Scottish castle gardens, to create a “unique Scottish product”.

One key takeaway for Christian was the importance of learning and understanding his market. He added: “You need to know where your market is, who your customers are, what they like and dislike, what they would buy, and the right price point. Identifying our unique selling proposition isn’t always easy, but we had extensive discussions about it.”

Since 2019, £178m has been spent on food and drink in the local region, generating £486.5m for the Aberdeenshire economy through visitor and tourism spending.

In 2023 the region also attracted over 3 million overnight visitors, a 32.7% increase from 2022, in addition to over 2.5 million day visitors, an 18.6% increase from 2022. 

The tourism sector in the North East has also experienced a 9.3% increase in full-time equivalent jobs in 2023 compared to 2022.

The course is funded by the UK Government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund through Aberdeenshire Council, offering budding Aberdeenshire Entrepreneurs the opportunity to meet with likeminded changemakers across the region.

The course will begin on 24 January 2025 and there is a current application deadline of Sunday 01 December 2024.