A Dram Fine Job

Jul 13 2008 By Frances Traynor

Cara Has The Bottle For Selling Scotch Around The World So You Want A Job In The Whisky Trade

CARA LAING had no problem deciding where she would work when she graduated from university.

Coming from a family where her grandfather and father had worked in the whisky industry, she knew this was where her career - and her heart - lay.

With an honours degree in marketing behind her, the 25-year-old knew exactly where to find her dream job.

She is now international brand manager for Isle of Jura single malt whisky.

Cara says: "I knew I wanted to work in the whisky industry and with Whyte & Mackay in particular because of its fantastic portfolio and exciting marketing activity.

"So I basically stalked the then marketing director and wore him down until he gave me a job!"

Cara started as an assistant brand manager at Whyte & Mackay's Glasgow offices in 2006, working across the whisky giant's range of products.

Cara, of Glasgow, says: "I genuinely love whisky, which some might think strange as I'm female and young.

"But head over to the continent and whisky is very much the order of the day for trendsetters."

While the European market continues to expand, Scotch is being sunk by the vatful even further afield.

A couple of years ago, China entered the top 10 whisky-drinking nations with sales of around £60million.

France remains the largest market and sales continue to flourish in USA, India, Japan and Eastern Europe.

Cara said: "I think I have the best job in the world - well, Scotland at least. I work with fun, creative and professional people and I work with a great, quirky brand that gives me scope to be innovative and a little different from the norm."

For Cara, one of the perks of the job is getting the chance to travel the globe.

For the past two years, she's been part of the Jura team at the world's biggest duty-free trade show at Cannes, an all-important event for exporters.

But while that might sound impossibly glamorous, the glitzy French resort doesn't have the same pull at the island of Jura where the single malt she promotes is distilled.

Cara said: "Jura is a beautiful island, filled with deer, not many people and our distillery.

"It is like being in another world - you can't beat sitting on the shore with a dram of Jura straight from the distillery as the sun beats down, watching seals and dolphins play in the ocean."