Numbers and Spirit: Benedikt Earns the CGMA Designation

A distillery is a craft, and it is also a business. In 2025 Benedikt Blomendahl qualified as a Chartered Global Management Accountant through CIMA, and continues to work toward his CA(SA).

An unusual pairing

It is a rare combination: the Master Distiller confirmed as the world's youngest in 2024, who can also read a balance sheet. We have not met another one.

In practice it collapses two conversations into one. A new brand owner usually has to talk recipe with a distiller and costing with an accountant, and neither fully understands the other's constraints. Here the person adjusting your alcohol strength also knows that the change moves your excise bill, because excise is charged per litre of absolute alcohol.

What it changed for clients

It is the foundation of our advisory and consulting service: business plans, costing models, market entry and feasibility work for distilleries and beverage ventures. We will stress test your numbers before you spend anything on glass, and if the model does not work we would rather say so at the start.

You can see how that thinking reads in practice in our honest breakdown of what contract distilling actually costs, where we publish the cost structure rather than hiding behind "pricing on application".

More about Benedikt, or ask about advisory work.