THE first in a new wave of Glasgow whisky distilleries has revealed it has raised £6 million to drive its ambitious growth plans.
Founded in 2014, the Glasgow Distillery Company will next month bring the first new independent single malt from the city to market in more than a century, with the 5,000 bottles of its 1770 Glasgow Single Malt Scotch Whisky produced for the debut release likely to quickly sell out.
Now the Hillington-based company, which also produces Makar premium gin, is pressing ahead with plans to double its production capacity after a multi-million-pound funding injection.
Ian McDougall, who set up the Glasgow Distillery Company with Liam Hughes, said the distiller has raised £6m from its existing Far Eastern investors and long-standing backer Clydesdale Bank in a fresh funding round.
The investment will be used to acquire two new stills from Carl in Germany. The new equipment, which has already been ordered, effectively replicates its existing set up of one 2,000-litre wash still and one 1,400-litre spirit still.
Mr McDougall said: “The easiest thing to do would be to just buy bigger ones and buy another two at 5,000 litres and 4,000 litres, but it wouldn’t be an exact replication of the spirit. The spirit is so good [that] we have ordered the exact same stills and said to them: don’t change anything.”
Mr McDougall, who owns Glasgow accountancy practice McDougall Johnstone, said the funding will also be used to take the distillery to a “24/7” operation, and expand its international sales and marketing reach. The company currently has 26 staff on its books, including nine distillers.
Named after the year the original but long-defunct Glasgow Distillery was established, the distiller’s 1770 whisky is expected to be snapped up quickly, with interest registered from Scandinavia, Germany and France.
Collectors interested in buying the unpeated malt, which is expected to be priced at £100 a bottle, have been invited to register online on the distiller’s website. They will find out whether they get the chance to buy the whisky following a ballot which takes place on June 3.
Mr McDougall said the release will be followed by a peated and a triple-distilled whisky. Further special releases are also being planned.
Mr McDougall said: “The first release will fly off the shelves, which is really good. It’s the first independent single malt whisky out of Glasgow in 112 years. We suspect a lot of people will be holding on to it because it’s a bit of a one-off purchase.”
Mr McDougall did not disclose specific figures on the company’s financial performance but stated that it had recorded “six-figure EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation)”, stating that the fact it was profitable was encouraging for a new distillery. He said its performance had been boosted by sales of its Makar gin and its Prometheus range of aged Speyside single malts. Turnover increased by 45% last year, Mr McDougall said, without providing the figure. A further double-digit percentage rise in turnover is expected this year.
Meanwhile, Mr McDougall welcomed the fresh wave of investment being made in new distilleries in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Since opening the Glasgow Distillery Company has been joined by the Clydeside Distillery, which sits between the Riverside Museum and the SSE Hydro. That is expected to be followed by Douglas Laing & Co’s £10m distillery, which the whisky blender plans to build on the old Glasgow Garden Festival site.
In the east, plans for three new distilleries in Edinburgh are on the slates.
Mr McDougall said: “Glasgow was always a whisky region. Before we reinvented it in Glasgow in 2014, it had been gone for 30, 40 years, so it is good to have that nucleus of new whisky distilleries. Edinburgh is the same.”
He added: “These are craft distilleries, and there’s a huge market for craft premium drinks, not just in Scotland, but massively throughout the world. [But] it is a long-term goal, whisky distilling is not a short-term game.”
Separately, Diageo has unveiled the people who will be charged with leading the revival of its Port Ellen and Brora distilleries, which are being brought out of mothballs in a £35m project.
Georgie Crawford, who ran the Lagavulin Distillery, will be responsible for bringing Port Ellen back into production for the first time in 35 years, while Stewart Bowman will lead the Brora revival after joining from Clynelish.
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