SCOTCH whisky distiller Edrington is shedding more than 20 staff and closing its Perth office in a move to a new head office in central Glasgow by early 2017.
The company, which owns brands including The Macallan, The Famous Grouse, Cutty Sark and Highland Park, said the new office would bring together its executive board and other essential head office functions, which are currently split between the distiller’s bottling and blending operation at Great Western Road in Glasgow and West Kinfauns in Perth.
About 13 of the 103 staff in Perth and eight of the 650 employees in Glasgow are expected to be made redundant in the move.
“We’re looking to take as many people based in Perth and their job roles with us to the new headquarters,” said Edrington’s corporate affairs director, Gerry O’Donnell. “It obviously won’t be possible to take all of them, so we’re expecting a small number of redundancies, probably 13 in total, out of these 103. There’ll be a consultation process with that community and we’ll treat these individuals with maximum respect – they’ll get every assistance.”
Edrington said it would also be consulting with head office staff at its Glasgow site, where about 50 corporate roles are expected to relocate to the new office. The company said it was evaluating a shortlist of sites and wanted to be close to major transport hubs.
“Glasgow is where it all started for our founders William Robertson and John Baxter in 1861,” said Edrington chief executive Ian Curle. “Bringing together our essential headquarter functions in a new central Glasgow location will help us to continue to compete successfully in a tough global market and to capitalise on what we see as positive long-term prospects for the industry.”
Edrington said a ‘lean, contemporary’ heaquarters in Glasgow would attract top talent, place decision making close to the company’s blending and bottling operation and improve communication between teams, ultimately boosting performance. The new office will house around 130 staff including finance, legal, corporate affairs, human resources and elements of IT as well as the executive directors and business units.
Mr O’Donnell explained that Edrington’s chief executive, group finance director and operations director were currently based in Glasgow, while the managing director of The Macallan business unit, the managing director of the ‘super premium’ business unit – including single malt Highland Park and Snow Leopard vodka – and the managing director of the ‘regional super brands ‘ business unit – including Dominican rum Brugal and blended whiskies The Famous Grouse and Cutty Sark – were all based in West Kinfauns.
Edrington’s other sites – none of which will be affected by the move – are the The Macallan and Glenrothes distilleries in Speyside, the Highland Park distillery on Orkney and Glenturret distillery in Crieff. It also has two warehousing sites in Speyside and Bishopriggs. The company said it would continue to be headquartered in Scotland – the largest remaining Scotch whisky company to do so – and would continue to support more than 700 jobs in rural and economically challenged areas.
Edrington employs 3,000 people worldwide, about 70 per cent of them overseas.
The company’s principal shareholder is The Robertson Trust, which donated over £18.2m to charitable causes in Scotland last year.
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