SHARES in the Artisanal Spirits Company have leapt more than 10 per cent this morning after reporting financial results that exceeded market expectations.

The company, which owns The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, told the city that revenue had increased by 19% to £21.8 million, helped by membership of the society increasing by 12% to 37,416. Losses narrowed to £2.1m from £2.7m in 2021.

Artisanal, which last week officially opened its new bottling, distribution and warehouse facility in Uddingston, said its performance in 2022 had been driven by significant revenue growth in China and UK venues, as well as strong membership growth in Europe, Australia, the US, and Japan.

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It invested around £5.5m to increase both cask spirit and wood, taking its total number of casks to 16,500 from 15,300 last year, and stated it now has enough stock to satisfy demand through to 2028 and beyond.

And the board declared its confidence in the company, which floated in 2021, meeting its target of doubling revenue to £30m between 2020 and 2024.

Chief executive Andrew Dane, who succeeded David Ridley in the top job in January, said: “Our ambition is to create a global, premium business which is highly profitable and cash generative by delivering the world’s best whisky experiences.

“We have a pioneering model, a long-term global growth opportunity on which we are primed to deliver. We are making significant strategic progress with strong membership growth and delivery of another strong year of profitable growth supported by improvement across all financial and operational KPIs (key performance indicators).

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"Over the last year we have continued to make investment for the future in further spirit and wood, as well as our own supply chain facility, and while the rate of cash spend on this has peaked, we will continue to invest, with a focus for FY23 on IT and technology to deliver and accelerate our growth even further.

“Our markets benefit from underlying structural dynamics which have increased our addressable market. We are seeking to exploit this opportunity by growing our international footprint, including in South Korea and Malaysia. The new financial year has begun well. We remain on track to meet our 2024 revenue target of £30m and deliver significant progress on our path to sustained profitability.”

Shares in Artisanal were trading at 99.75p at 9.30am, up 9.75p on the day.