Hillmartin Distillery CEO Gavin Shaw started his career in applied science specialising in applied chemistry. In the early years, he worked in the corporate world, starting with Ansell. He then moved to Asia for seven years including two years in Sri Lanka. It was there he was headhunted by the guys who make Durex condoms so then moved to Malaysia.
Gavin was technical director, Asia Pacific, for that company up until 1995. He then returned to Australia unsure of what to do next. Gavin purchased a training and development franchise he describes as interesting. “When you work in corporate you can say, ‘Don't you know who I work for?’ You've got all the power of the corporate world and all the money, and when you're by yourself, you get none of that so you’ve really got to learn to stand on your own two feet”.
After building a client base Gavin decided to sell the business and stepped into the accounting industry and then from there into a startup that was importing gas piping systems out of China which he has since sold.
“With the gas piping systems, because of my background in science, manufacturing experience and years living in Asia, we ended up sourcing the product out of China. We did very well. Along that journey, in 2012, I mortgaged everything I had and bought out the other business partner, which looking back when you think of it, I had no mortgage and no debt and all the rest of that and I’m 50-something years old and I’ve just got to the top, I think it was a bit of a rash decision at the time, but it worked out really, really well”.
Gavin now lives on five acres in Plenty in Victoria and over lunch with a friend (Gary), Gavin mentioned he was thinking of making wine. “I was 60 years old at that stage. I considered that the grapes only come around once a year, I've got to get them, I've got to crush them, I've got to ferment them, I've got to bottle it, I've got to age it. I'll be dead before I make anything decent at all! Gary suggested I buy a still”.
At the time Gavin had a tradesman working at the property. “I asked him to put a big kitchen and benches in the shed. It started as a bit of a hobby during the second 2020 Covid lockdown, but became a passion very quickly. The initial gin I was making, I thought was really good, but my daughter told me it was terrible. She thought I was trying to poison people. That’s how the passion grew, as I was now more determined to create great tasting spirits. To help production I bought a second still that was more sophisticated rather than the hobby still I was using, and off it grew from there”.
To Gavin’s surprise, his daughter Amy has now joined the business full-time. Amy was the manager of digital acquisition for UniSuper. Gavin describes Amy, aged 32, as pretty sharp. “She's a bit tough on me at times, she's always honest with what she thinks and doesn’t hold back when she believes something doesn’t align with our brand values. When we started selling, she really got involved in the creative side of things. I remember once posting something on Instagram, and honestly, I got a call three seconds later saying, ‘Dad, I have a strategy, I have a plan, I have KPIs that I'm looking to hit. Get off social media. Leave it to me. That's my realm’. She was working full-time at UniSuper and then at night and on the weekends working in the gin business. It was a real shock how involved and passionate she became when she was kicking goals in the corporate world”.
In 2021 Amy and Gavin attended a gin show and realised their gins were just as good as anyone else’s and there was something to their father daughter story that appealed to their audience. “We were driving one day and we went, hmm, our story seems to be pulling on peoples heartstrings - there’s something to this. Will we go with it? From that moment on our brand has focused on sharing the father daughter story and connection. People love our gin and this year our HM Rare Dry Gin won Australia's Best London Dry Style at the World Gin Awards in London. That got us a lot of kudos and recognition that we knew our gins deserved".
When it comes to success Gavin shares that he has never been driven by money. “For me, success is creating a business that runs itself and doesn’t rely on a single leader to consistently hit its goals. The owner should be able to have a break without fear that things will go off the rails. That's what I would define as success”.
When reflecting on his time at The CEO Institute Gavin shares “I think in business, particularly if you're head of a company, it’s critical. I've got mates I meet every Thursday night, and some of them I don't even know what they do, it took me 10 years to work out what they do because we talk about the football or we talk about what's happening in the world. We're not there trying to get into each other's pockets, or network, we’re just there as friends. I think The CEO Syndicate meetings are good in that you get out of your office. You meet business people from diverse backgrounds and see what you don't know, and if you need to find something out, you've got a network of people you can ask”.
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