THE company which makes Glenmorangie and Ardbeg whiskies has reported a 47 per cent increase in pre-tax profits, to £19.8 million as it grew volume and benefited from the pound’s weakness.
Revenue at Macdonald & Muir was up four per cent to £84.3m.
The Edinburgh-based business is ultimately owned by LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy).
Writing in its annual accounts, chief executive Marc Hoellinger said the company had returned a solid performance within the growing whisky category.
“Glenmorangie and Ardbeg delivered increased volume and profit growth. The company is very encouraged by this strong performance and remains confident in its objective to build strong premium single malt whisky brands.”
He said the company had a strategy to strengthen and consolidate its brands in the international marketplace, where there remained considerable scope for growth.
“Product innovation and excellence are central to our ambition, supported by creative marketing,” he said. “We are continuing to capitalise on the unrivalled global distribution strengths of our parent company.”
That product innovation last year included the seventh annual private edition release, Glenmorangie Milsean, and the Bond House No 1 Collection, which Mr Hoellinger said celebrated some of the distilleries best aged whiskies.
The year also saw the company once again sponsor The Open.
Ardbeg, one of the eight Islay distillery’s, was aided in the year by the release of a 21-year-old expression in the period, the first of its kind to emerge from the distillery in 15 years.
Mr Hoellinger said: “The company is confident in [its] strategy going forward and will continue to support the development of its brands with the resultant positive impacts on increases in production and employment in its operations.”
The company noted the year had also seen the construction of an anaerobic digestion plant at Glenmorangie, which will reduce chemical oxygen demand at the distillery by 95 per cent.
Whisky stocks at the company increased in value to £153m from £139m the previous year.
The average number of employees at the business throughout the year was 208. Director remuneration fell to £1m, with the highest paid director receiving emoluments totalling £565,000.
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