women in business
World Stage From Rural to
Born and raised in Reefton, Patsy Bass has led an illustrious career through the corporate world, from human resources to change, project and general management roles.
H Patsy Bass FOUNDER, REEFTON DISTILLING CO
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er latest endeavour, Reefton Distilling Co., was founded by Bass in 2018. In her own words, the company is more than just a whisky and gin, it’s about helping to regenerate a town, providing jobs for the next generation, so that they might have a future on the Coast, stay local, raise their own families, and keep the community alive and vibrant. She said it was also about attracting new people to the region. A proud ‘Coaster’, Bass has always believed in promoting all the good things happening within the West Coast region. Bass was a founding member of Distilled Spirits Aotearoa and has continued to be active within the association, with her team readily sharing their knowledge to support others in the spirits industry. Knowing that if all producers are as good as they can possibly be, Bass said it will benefit
the entire New Zealand Spirits Industry and in turn help put New Zealand spirits firmly on the world stage The most important advice Bass has received throughout her career was to have a sound, long term business plan, be bold and not to be afraid to go out and raise finance. When looking at what she might do to help create a business to contribute to the revitalisation of her hometown, Bass held community forums in Reefton, and brainstormed ideas, with the distillery the one idea we kept coming back to. She then talked this through with some of her network of successful business people, who were happy to share their knowledge and make introductions. After spending several months creating a business case, her first real challenge was to raise the finance. Bass said that setting up a distillery is not for the faint hearted. “To raise the funds needed (to get a business of this type off the ground) over our initial founding shareholder investment, was a big task. Whisky in particular is a long, slow game, requiring significant capital for many years before there is any return,” she said. Bass chose an equity share offer via