BOOMING export markets for whisky helped Chivas Brothers Limited to a 6% rise in sales.
The Paisley company, owned by French drinks giant Pernod Ricard, reported an increase in turnover from £487.1 million to £517.6m in accounts filed at Companies House.
In the year to June 30, 2011, North America performed strongly going from £80.3m to £111.1m, with Asia also up from £144.9m to £158.3m. Sales to Europe rose from £167.6m to £168.9m with African exports up from £29.3m to £33.1m.
However, not all territories grew, with Central and South America dipping from £59.6m to £41m with sales in other areas also down from £5.4m to £5.1m.
Pre-tax profits declined from £205.2m to £191m mainly due to a smaller gain, £9.3m as opposed to £30.2m, on insurance payments due for damage caused to warehouses in 2010.
A note to the accounts said: "The results disclosed for the year are in line with expectations. Turnover and gross margin have increased reflecting increased volumes.
"The directors are satisfied with the current trading performance. They remain optimistic for the future."
The average number of monthly employees was down slightly from 1540 to 1535 but staff costs including wages rose from £70.3m to £72.4m.
Directors' emoluments went from £3m to £3.6m, with the highest paid receiving a rise from £994,000 to £1.2m.
The company's chief executive and chairman is Christian Porta, who also sits on the executive committee at Pernod Ricard.
A spokeswoman for Chivas Brothers, which makes Glenlivet, Royal Salute and Ballantine's whisky plus Beefeater gin, said the accounts did not give a full picture of the company's operations.
She said: "The results of the Chivas Brothers scotch whisky and gin business are split across a number of separate UK legal entities within the Pernod Ricard group.
"As a result, the statutory accounts of Chivas Brothers Limited on a standalone basis do not fully reflect the financial performance of the business in the quoted year."
Chivas Brothers has 32 sites in the UK with 12 malt distilleries and two gin distilleries.
Glenlivet sold 718,000 cases in 2010/11 according to Pernod Ricard's annual report.
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 hereComments are closed on this article