RARELY a month goes by without big news on the Scotch whisky front and there were plenty of developments on this front in February. In an exclusive interview with The Herald, the new chairman of Ardgowan Distillery under construction near Inverkip shared his hopes for the project.
Paul Currie, who co-founded Isle of Arran Distillers in the mid-1990s before going on to jointly launch The Lakes Distillery in Cumbria, is the latest big name to become attached to the project, which has set out its vision to build a £20 million “cathedral of whisky” in Inverclyde. The senior team also includes David Keir, a founding director of The GlenAllachie Distillers Company, ex-Macallan master of wood Stuart Macpherson, and Max McFarlane, former lead maker at Edrington.
Currie told me: “You are probably aware within the malt whisky industry there are a lot of new distilleries out there. But I guess what got my attention with Ardgowan was the aspiration and scale and quality that they are looking for.
“A lot of the new distilleries are very kind of artisan, small [projects] and that is fine. The aspiration is never to be that big. Ardgowan is looking to be a leading player. The capacity of production, the money raised and the investment required is considerably more than the others are doing. It is that aspiration and ambition that was attractive to me.”
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Currie, still closely involved with The Lakes Distillery, said production should begin at Ardgowan by the end of the year, with tours beginning soon after. The initial plan is to produce one million litres of spirit per year, before stepping output up to two million litres in the longer term. The construction of a visitor centre is also part of the plans.
Elsewhere, Chivas Brothers owner Pernod Ricard signalled it had put a “soft” start to its financial year behind it. The firm, which makes Ballantine’s and Chivas Regal blended whiskies, declared it was on track to meet profit expectations for the longer term at the upper end of guidance, despite reducing its sales estimate and shares buyback for the current year.
It came as Pernod reported a “robust performance” for the first half as the spirits market normalised following “two years of outstanding growth”.
There were plenty of headlines in the financial sector in February too. Royal Bank of Scotland owner NatWest Group reported annual profits higher than City forecasts as interim boss Paul Thwaite was confirmed as its permanent chief executive. The state-backed lender reported an operating pre-tax profit of £6.2 billion for 2023, up 20% on the year before and ahead of the £6bn expected, with the results again demonstrating a boost to income from higher interest rates.
The results were a positive start for Thwaite, seeking to steady the ship following last year’s Nigel Farage “de-banking” scandal. Former chief executive Dame Alison Rose lost her job in July after she admitted to being the source of BBC stories concerning the financial affairs of the former UKIP leader.
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Tesco Bank sold a huge swathe of its retail banking operations to Barclays last month in a deal worth an initial £600m that will affect hundreds of staff based in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The retail giant sold its credit cards, loans, and savings operations to the high-street lender, having previously exited the current account and mortgage markets.
A spokeswoman was unable to provide a breakdown on the number of staff employed by Tesco Bank at each of its locations but said the “absolute majority” of the 2,800 staff transferring to Barclays are based in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Virgin Money, the institution that owns the former Clydesdale Bank, said it was on track to make annual savings of around £200m following its latest round of branch closures, while warning further job cuts will come as part of its restructuring activity. The bank slashed its branch network by 30%, reducing the total to 91, and cut its office footprint by 35% in a restructuring programme announced in July that was completed in its first quarter.
The moves resulted in a reduction in full-time equivalent posts of around 150 and the bank stated it expects further reductions in FTEs.
Finally, we exclusively revealed former Scottish Enterprise chief executive Steve Dunlop has been appointed successor to the late Lord Alistair Darling as head of a company planning to build thousands of new homes in the west of Edinburgh.
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Dunlop has stepped up to become the new chairman of Crosswind Developments, following the passing of former Labour MP and Chancellor of the Exchequer Lord Darling in November. Crosswind is poised to lodge proposals for a development project that will include 3,000 new homes on the site near Edinburgh Airport.
Dunlop declared the timing of the project “could not be better” for Edinburgh, where a “housing emergency” was recently declared and the city plan for 2030 is under consideration. Steve Dunlop, above, is the new chairman of Crosswind, while Paul Currie, below, is toasting a bright future for the whisky industry
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