April BUSINESS MONTH of the
ELEVATED MOUNTAIN DISTILLING COMPANY
How did you grow up and what got you here?
I grew up here in Waynesville and loved it. When I was
14, I made whiskey for the first time in a 9th grade science
experiment, which fascinated me.
How were you allowed to do that?!
I just said, “this is what I’m doing” and the school asked me
to get a letter from the sheriff, Jack Arrington at the time,
saying it was ok. He wrote me a permission slip that said,
for the purposes of science I had the right to make some
whiskey. It was all about agri-business and giving the grain
back to the farm. An old timer in Allen’s Creek taught me
how. I’ve been fascinated with it my whole life. So, here we
are now trying to make a business out of it.
I understand that you were in a very different industry
before you made the leap of faith?
Very much so. I was an HR Executive for twenty something
years, mainly working in pharmaceuticals and chemicals.
At my last job, I was responsible for the Americas, with a
company that made automatic doors like the ones you walk
through going into Walmart. With the chemical company,
I was responsible for Asia Pacific. A lot of fun, but they just
don’t have jobs like that here in Haywood County and the
time came where it was time for me to move home.
Where had you been living?
At the time, Ohio, but I’ve lived in Shanghai, Ann Arbor,
Michigan, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Columbus, Ohio, and
the Boston area.
Was this always going to be the business location because
I know you’re the first in Haywood County?
I did look in a broader area, but I settled on Haywood
County for a lot of reasons. The challenge is real. NC isn’t
very alcohol friendly at the moment. They have so many
restrictions that every state surrounding us does not. We
looked very hard at TN, where there’s much more opportunity
to be successful at what we’re doing. We finally
decided that we just wanted to be at home, not an hour or
more away. We wanted to be a part of Haywood County.
Thankfully, there’s been a lot of pressure on NC to change
these laws and step into the real world, so we’re seeing
those laws and restrictions change every day.
I did not know that Haywood County had the highest
average elevation east of the Rockies and that all
water starts here, until I took your tour.
What a lot of people don’t realize is that there’s only one
other county like us in the US and that is Grand County,
Colorado. We have very brandable water if you will.
That’s why there are now 40 something breweries, 5-6
soda companies, and 6-7 distilleries between Haywood
and Buncombe counties. We are known for our craft beverages.
Our largest manufacturing industry in WNC is
craft alcoholic beverage manufacturing. I brought that up
at a Chamber meeting recently and someone called out,
“what about the mill?” The mill is important, critical and
we need it, but it doesn’t come close to the investment
made in the last 10 years compared to craft alcoholic beverages.
1 Billion dollars has been invested in WNC and
2,500 of our neighbors work in this industry, making it
the single biggest manufacturing industry in WNC. This
is not a fad, as some would like to believe. It’s here to stay
and is only going to get bigger.
10