THE managing director of Ian Macleod Distillers has said the whisky firm is exploring ways of working more closely with Edinburgh Gin owner Spencerfield Spirit Company, and did not rule out buying the business if the opportunity arose.
Leonard Russell was commenting amid mounting industry speculation that Ian Macleod has struck a deal to acquire Fife-based Spencerfield.
Ian Macleod, distiller of the Glengoyne and Tamdhu malts, has a long-standing commercial relationship with the company, which was established by former Glenmorangie and Whyte & Mackay director Alex Nicol and his wife Jane in 2005.
The distiller bottles Edinburgh Gin in Broxburn and distributes the spirit around the UK, while also supplying whisky for its Pig’s Nose and Sheep Dip blended Scotch products. Spencerfield distils its gin in Leith and operates a visitor centre in partnership with Heads & Tales, a bar in the basement of Edinburgh’s Rutland Hotel.
Speculation has been rife that Ian Macleod has acquired Spencerfield outright in a multi-million pound deal. Mr Russell said his firm’s focus was more on developing existing commercial links with Spencerfield, but said that if the current owners “wanted out we would consider it”.
“It’s wrong to say we would not acquire it under any circumstances,” he said.
Mr Russell added: “The story there is that Alex and Jane Nicol, who own the Spencerfield Spirit Company, have been friends of mine for 30 years.
“Alex used to be the marketing director at Glenmorangie so I’ve been a pal of his for a long time. We’re just doing more business with them. We’re formalising an agreement to distribute more Edinburgh Gin in the UK. We are getting closer, but we have not purchased Spencerfield Spirit Company.”
Mr Russell acknowledged there have been “quite a lot of rumours” that a deal had been done, which he suggested was down to the success the Ian Macleod team is having in selling Edinburgh Gin into Scottish outlets. “I can’t go into a bar without people saying I love your Edinburgh Gin,” he said. “We do distribute it, although Alex and Jane do put it into farm shops and things.”
Spencerfield declined to comment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here