Women in Whisky: Annabel Thomas’s Journey with Nc’nean

Two years after our first conversation with Annabel Thomas, founder of Nc’nean, the picture looks very different. When we last spoke in 2023, her sustainable Scotch whisky distillery on the west coast of Scotland was still in its early growth phase, gaining attention for its beautiful bottle, organic spirit and pioneering green credentials. Now, as we revisit her story, Nc’nean is stocked in major UK retailers, pouring on sleeper trains and ferries, expanding across the US and Asia, and quietly nudging a traditional industry in a new direction. At the centre of it all is Annabel, still calm, warm and clear-eyed about why she started: “We just want to spread the love”.

From consultancy decks to copper stills

Before Nc’nean, Annabel’s world was slide decks, strategy papers and client meetings. Her background in consulting gave her a solid understanding of numbers, markets and business models, but the work felt abstract. She was advising other people on how to grow their companies, not building anything she could touch, taste or pour.

Starting a distillery was not the obvious next step. It meant leaving a stable professional path, moving into a deeply traditional industry and committing to a project measured in decades, not quarters. Yet the idea stuck. As she learned more about whisky and Scotland’s distilling heritage, she saw a gap for something modern, sustainable and welcoming to people who did not see themselves as “whisky drinkers”.

Crucially, her motivation was never just about launching another premium spirit, It was about doing things differently from the ground up. 

“When I think back to why I started Nc’nean, it’s all about sustainability and innovation,” she explains. 

That clarity of purpose has shaped every decision since, from the energy that powers the distillery to the type of drinker she wants to reach.

Riding the waves of global growth

If the first chapter of Nc’nean was about proving the concept, the last two years have been about learning how to grow in a turbulent world.

Since 2023, Nc’nean has moved from a promising newcomer to a brand with real international reach. The US has become a key focus, offering huge potential but also fresh challenges. Even with shifting market conditions, the response from American drinkers has been encouraging, especially from those excited to support female founded brands and discover new styles of Scotch.

Back home, the UK story has shifted, too. Nc’nean is no longer only something you seek out in specialist whisky shops; it is on shelves in Waitrose, featured on Ocado, and listed in places like Fortnum & Mason, the Caledonian Sleeper train and Calmac Ferries. For Annabel, these listings are not just commercial wins. They are gateways to the “new drinker” who would never step into a traditional whisky shop, but might pick up a bottle while doing the weekly shop or travelling between London and Scotland.

Further afield, Nc’nean has begun building its presence in Asia. Some markets have grown quickly, others more steadily, but together they show how global interest in modern, sustainable Scotch is taking shape. It’s an expansion shaped by patience as much as ambition, especially at a time when consumer confidence varies from region to region.

Growth, in other words, has not been a straight upward line. It has looked more like a series of curves and waves, with Nc’nean learning to adapt, pace its expectations and spread risk across different regions.

Reimagining whisky for a circular future

What keeps Annabel energised is not just where Nc’nean sells, but how it operates. Sustainability is not a side note, it is baked into the distillery’s design and daily decisions.

The team powers operations with timber rather than fossil fuels, a decision that once felt costly but has proved resilient as energy prices shifted. That same mindset shapes how they think about packaging. Instead of treating glass bottles as single-use, Nc’nean encourages people to keep them in circulation. Visitors can refill their bottles at the distillery for a discounted price, giving each one a longer life, while online customers can send empties back using a simple return system. Together, these choices build a culture of reuse that feels both practical and quietly radical.

In the on trade, Nc’nean applies the same circular thinking. Restaurants like Timberyard in Edinburgh receive whisky in reusable 10-litre containers that travel back and forth, cutting the need for single-use bottles. These processes are small in the grand scheme of global packaging waste, yet they punch above their weight in influence. People hear about them on the other side of the world and start to imagine different possibilities for reuse and refills.

As Annabel puts it, 

“We have introduced lots of small little steps to move towards a circular economy on packaging”. 

The impact is both practical and psychological: fewer bottles produced, and more people seeing refill and return as normal, not niche.

When the job never really stops

From the outside, international listings and sustainability awards look glamorous. The reality, especially for a founder who is also the face of the brand, is more demanding.

Work and life have always blurred for Annabel. When someone asks what she does at a dinner party, it opens the door to an hour of questions about what it is like to run a whisky distillery. She is constantly “on”, softly selling the brand simply by being herself in different rooms.

As Nc’nean has expanded, the travel has increased. A typical week might look like Paris on Monday, Copenhagen on Thursday and New York on Sunday, with family life threaded around flights and tastings. There is little time to actually see the cities she visits; it’s all airports, meetings, hotel gyms and late-night emails.

She is honest that the strain has not eased with success. 

“From a work-life balance point of view, I think that’s got worse,” she reflects.

At the same time, she is quick to notice the small upsides. A quiet morning workout before a day of meetings, the freedom to plan travel rather than being told where to be by a boss.

The paradox of entrepreneurship is clear here. Her work is more all-consuming than her old consulting job, yet she has more say over how and when that work happens- control and responsibility rise together.

Changing who whisky is for

Talk to Annabel for any length of time and you feel how much she cares about the drinker on the other side of the bottle. The goal is not just to sell more whisky, but to change who feels welcome in the category.

One of Annabel’s greatest joys is watching someone discover whisky in a new way. She often meets people who are certain the category isn’t for them, only to see their expression change with a single sip. Sometimes it’s at a bar, sometimes at a tasting, sometimes through stories people share after trying Nc’nean for the first time. Each moment is a reminder that whisky can surprise people and feel far more approachable than they expect. 

“What I enjoy most is finding people who thought they didn’t like whisky, trying Nc’nean and loving it,” she says.

To open that door for more people, Nc’nean introduced smaller bottles that make the spirit easy and affordable to try. They’ve been embraced quickly, a small but telling sign of how many drinkers are curious about whisky when the barrier to entry feels low.

Every new fan is a quiet challenge to the stereotype of who drinks Scotch. Each mini, each sample poured at an event or shared between friends, nudges the category a little wider open.

Being a woman in an old-school industry

When Annabel started Nc’nean, she did not set out to be “a woman in whisky”. Her focus was on the liquid, the land and the environmental impact of building a distillery from scratch. Gender was not front of mind.

Over time, that has shifted, largely because of how other people respond. She has been genuinely surprised by how often her identity as a woman is the first thing people want to talk about. Strangers ask whether she actually likes whisky, or direct questions to her husband in social situations as if he must be the one behind the distillery. None of this is said aggressively, it shows up instead as a series of small assumptions about who drinks whisky and who runs businesses in heavy industry.

“There are still not enough women in the whisky industry, and that’s a challenge in people’s perception as much as it is in reality as well,” she says. 

Those perceptions sit deep, shaping everything from casual comments at tastings to how investors question female founders.

At the same time, visibility has brought unexpected positives. Many women who already love whisky are thrilled to see a woman running a distillery and actively seek out Nc’nean. The brand’s roughly gender balanced team sets a quiet example of what a modern distillery can look like. Initiatives like Buy Women Built and the OurWhisky Foundation are surfacing more female-led brands and supporting women at the start of their careers, creating a network that did not exist a decade ago.

Annabel now thinks more deliberately about using her position to support other women in the industry. She has taken on mentoring through the OurWhisky Foundation, offering guidance to early-stage founders and women beginning their careers in the sector. At the same time, she keeps Nc’nean’s core mission firmly rooted in taste and sustainability, ensuring the brand’s growth stays aligned with the values she began with.

Lessons for women thinking about starting up

Looking back over twelve years of building Nc’nean, Annabel returns to the foundations rather than the headlines. Markets, tariffs and trends change, what keeps you going is the reason you began.

Her first piece of advice is to get crystal clear on that reason. 

“Be clear on your mission, why you’re doing it,” she says. 

That mission needs to matter to you and to the people you want to serve. It needs to be strong enough to pull you through the late nights, the unexpected crises and the years where progress feels slow from the outside.

Perseverance still sits at the heart of her message. There are always curveballs you did not plan for, from key team members leaving to global events reshaping your main export market. The stories that look like overnight success usually have years of quiet work behind them.

She also points to the importance of support. There are now more programmes, communities and networks for women founders than when she started. Some are sector-specific, others cut across industries, but all share the same goal of making it less lonely to build something of your own. Knowing when to ask for help, and being willing to accept it, is part of the skillset of modern entrepreneurship.

For women building products and services rooted in their own lived experience, she recognises how hard it can be to convince investors who do not share that experience. It’s important to keep backing your insight, seek out people who understand the problem you are solving, and remember that venture capital is not the only route to growth.

Reflections from a Founder’s Journey

Annabel’s story isn’t tidy. It’s shaped by long drives, shifting markets and the constant juggle of work and family life. Yet it’s also marked by the moments that keep her moving: seeing a refill scheme take off, watching a restaurant choose a lower waste option, or hearing from someone who has discovered whisky in a new way through Nc’nean.

Her definition of success has evolved too. Running the distillery is more demanding than her old consulting role, but the satisfaction is deeper. She’s building something rooted in land, community and long-term impact, with the potential to gently shift a historic industry towards better habits.

Looking back, Annabel can see real distance between where Nc’nean began and where it stands today. The distillery has grown through uncertainty, expanded its reach and continued to innovate. Her role has grown with it, asking for more travel, wider perspective and decisions that shape the business for years to come.

Through it all, one belief grounds her, and it’s the encouragement she offers to anyone starting out: 

“You’ve just got to keep going, don’t give up.”

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