THE Loch Lomond Distillery Company, owned by drinks industry veteran Sandy Bulloch, is reported to be in the sights of private equity firm Exponent.
Loch Lomond, which employs around 65 people, stayed tight-lipped about the prospects for a deal, which comes only three months after the company released accounts showing that it had fallen to a £200,000 pre-tax loss.
Last year's sale of Islay's Bruichladdich distillery to French drinks giant Remy Cointreau for £58 million has led to speculation that there may be further merger and acquisition activity as investors seek to profit from burgeoning demand in emerging markets.
Exponent owns meat-free meals company Quorn Foods and has investments in the likes of Ambassador Theatre Group, HSS, the tool-hire firm, and Radley, the handbag manufacturer.
It was reported by Sky News to be the frontrunner to acquire Loch Lomond, which is based in Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire, and may do so as part of a consortium of investors.
Loch Lomond's key products include High Commissioner blended whisky and Glen's Vodka.
As well as its distillery, Loch Lomond has interests in bonded warehouses, wine and spirit wholesaling and spirit broking.
The Bulloch family bought the Loch Lomond distillery in 1985, then added a set of grain stills in 1993 to allow both grain and malt whiskies to be produced.
The family can trace its origins in the drinks trade back to a whisky wholesale business in Glasgow in 1842.
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