It is with the greatest sadness that we announce the death, in service, of our dear colleague Sarah Taylor, who was our New Product Development Manager, and much valued. Yesterday, we said our final farewell to our friend.

Neil Quigley, the Penderyn Director, said this at the Margam Crematorium:

Good Afternoon, everyone, on a day that none of us ever wanted to see and where the weather matches the mood.  I wanted to say a few words about our colleague and friend Sarah Taylor.  I realise that whatever I say will be insignificant and unable to capture the depth and strength of your own experiences and interactions with Sarah, because that was the sort of women she was – someone who had a lasting and positive impact on the people she met.

Sarah joined Penderyn in May 2022, to help and look after the development of new products and brands.  To those ignorant souls like me, we quickly realised that she was not just there to simply co-ordinate and manage the process.  Sarah used her creative, clever and intuitive mind to help us deliver some fantastic and, for us, ground breaking products.  With such acute emotional intelligence she probed, pushed and challenged the creative process – never in a confrontational or aggressive way, but always in a collegiate and engaging way, helping to lead us to a ‘solution’ that was invariably better than our starting position.  However, I should mention that she was, also, very organised and driven to get us to our destination – not easy in a group of ‘free thinkers’ all who have their own timelines and thoughts about the route to take.  In what has turned out to be an obscenely short period of time, Sarah delivered 5 different bottlings in our Icons range and our 21 Year old whisky.  If you have seen these fruits of her labour you will have been excited, surprised and couldn’t fail to be impressed by what she brought to life with her colleagues.

If you’d indulge me, I’d like to read a few words from our Creative Designer, Lauren Tutssel, who worked closely with Sarah:

“Sarah was so much more than a colleague — she was a partner in creativity, a trusted collaborator, and, most importantly, a friend. She was sharp, witty, kind, and driven — the sort of person who could make even the most challenging project feel joyful. Her attention to detail, her passion for doing things properly, and her quick sense of humour made her an absolute pleasure to work with.

I’ll always be grateful for the time we spent together and the wonderful things we created. Her spirit will live on in the work she shaped and in the hearts of everyone who had the privilege of knowing her.”

But Sarah wasn’t just about the work output.  She made friendships and touched the lives of all of the people she came into contact with, which is clearly demonstrated by the number of her colleagues who are here today to pay their respects and we hope may offer some comfort to Carl, Elliot and Sarah’s family.  All of them will tell you of the numerous, ‘mundane’ times they came into contact and chatted with Sarah, of how she would go out of her way to leave her office, go downstairs to the Visitor Centre or be in Swansea and just talk to people.  She always made time – even when she was under tight time pressure herself, she remained ‘available’ and was genuinely interested in people.  Sarah could listen supportively, dispense sage advice and make you laugh in such an easy manner that you wouldn’t realise you had been ‘in the analysts chair’, but you would always feel better after you had ‘bumped into her’.  It seems crass for me to say that we have all been shocked and devastated by what has happened, as this is as nothing compared to what you must be feeling, but I just wanted you to know that Sarah, your partner, your mom, your daughter and sister had such an impact on us too – a clever, intelligent, capable and funny woman who we will miss

Finally, I’d just like to let you know that Sarah and I fully bonded over a love of Strictly Come Dancing.  Monday morning discussions would analyse who had left the evening before, the quality of a contestants fleckle, or the angle of their feet, were they turned out correctly or not.  I was extremely jealous that Sarah had been to see the Live Show in my home town of Birmingham and it is a measure of her acerbic wit that she actually brought me back a plastic bottle full of Brummie air – it smelt like diesel, by the way.  I never managed to convince her to do a Charleston through the Visitor Centre, but I’m certain she will be doing a mean jive wherever she is now.  Sarah, until we meet again, rest peacefully