BILLY Walker, the son of a shipyard blacksmith and now the owner of BenRiach distillery, would much rather have played for Rangers, had he had the choice - but when you come from the "big whisky town" of Dumbarton, fate often takes a particular course.

"Aside from whisky, football is my other real passion, "Walker confessed.

However, the whisky industry veteran, who recently turned 60 - an age which he believes gives him a "a certain perspective on things" - concedes that no matterwhich other directions he might have ventured, the whisky business would likely have always drawn him back.

"I really am a true product of Dumbarton, " he said of himself and the town of its birth, which once boasted a score of distilleries and different blends in the days of Hiram Walker, the Canadian whisky conglomerate.

While Ballantine's, now owned by Allied Domecq, still remains in Dumbarton, the aged orange landmark headquarters at the end of the main street is now in the process of being transformed into flats, and the massive former J&B whisky centre has become the set of the BBC soap River City.

Yet while times have changed for the global whisky sector and for Dumbarton itself, Walker has remained an industry stalwart - and his enthusiasm for the business of barley, peat and strong drink has yet to wane.

He exudes the calm and contented poise typical of most people who work in the industry, and welcomes the growing international presence in the whisky business.

Almost three years ago, Walker had been the operations director and a 3per cent stakeholder in Burn Stewart, the stockmarket-listed East Kilbride distiller, when it was taken over by Trinidadian conglomerate CL Financial.

However, when the opportunity to retire on the spoils of his investment and his years of hard work that followed the management buyin at Burn Stewart in the late 1980s, fate seemed to intervene again.

"Frankly, howmuch can one person spend?" said Walker, who now lives in Airdrie, but says he still works around 60 hours a week and really only relaxes when he is watching Rangers play.

"I've got my home and family and my company. In my opinion, you need to be an arse to fritter away a fortune anyway."

Walker instead went on the hunt for anotherwhisky business and formed a three-man consortium to lead the acquisition of mothballed Speyside distillery BenRiach from Chivas Regal for around GBP5m in 2002. He now runs his new company from a business park in Larbert, Stirlingshire.

In the 18 months since the distillery reopened, it has won three medals at the 2005 International Spirits Challenge, and Walker himself took home an international business honour at this year's Enterprising Scotland awards in June.

"You've got to die with your boots on, " said Walker. "Wow, to wake up in the morning and not have anything to do. Now that would be a challenge.

"It was enough of a challenge to find a distillery with good existing inventory."

The story of BenRiach, which means "hill of the red deer" in Gaelic, is typical of many great Speyside distilleries.

Built in 1898, it lies close to the River Lossie among the rolling barley fields that rise to the foothills of the Grampians near Elgin.

The waterwas, and still is, drawn through the rock that lies deep below the distillery site.

Awhisky market recession closed it in 1900, and it did not open again until 1965, when it was rebuilt by Glenlivet Distillers.

Walker added: "The distillery's location in the Spey Valley, its 107year heritage and access to unbroken inventory, including both young malts and olderwhiskies dating from 1966, made it an obvious choice for us."

In August last year, the first bottling of BenRiach under the new owners took place. BenRiach Heart of Speyside, 12, 16 and 20 year-old, and the peated 10 year-old, were all released to the public for the first time - thanks to sitting inventory that was purchased with the distillery.

While Walker studied and was a teenager during the 1960s, his recollections of that era have little connection with the Beatles, psychedelia, mods, rockers or the youth revolution which characterised the period.

For the son of a former blacksmith at William Denny & Brothers, Dumbarton's last shipbuilding yard, which closed down in 1963, the decade represented a very different kind of revolution.

"Music wasn't really my thing, and it still isn't. If I never heard music again, it wouldn't really botherme, "Walker admitted.

"But forme, the 1960s was a marvellous era of opportunity when people from working-class backgrounds were able to go to university and enter industry for the first time in any numbers. The opportunities in industry at that time were just amazing."

In the beginning, of course, Walker never intended to work in the whisky business.

He started his working life with a Dutch pharmaceutical company, the maker of the contraceptive pill, after graduating with a chemistry degree from Glasgow University.

"That was an interesting company to workwith during the 1960s, because of course it made the birth control pill . . . but we were also doing incredibly interesting work developing painkillers. I enjoyed working at Organon immensely."

Nonetheless, four years later, the whisky bug took hold and, at 26, he joined Hiram Walker's InverHouse as a distillery chemist and his calling suddenly opened up before him.

"They were fantastic to me, and gave me all kinds of opportunities, " he said. "They really gave me large amounts of freedom and I did everything from developing the whisky-based liqueurHeather Cream, which I personally came up with, to running around and looking after all the distilleries."

However, it was during his 15 years at Burn Stewart that he was truly able to indulge his passion for Rangers.

Fellow Rangers fan Bill Thornton, the former chairman and chief executive of Burn Stewart, spent GBP1m of the distiller's money buying shares in the Ibrox club.

Burn Stewart's investment in Rangers dated from 1995, when the club invited selected corporate figures to become honorary directors in exchange for a five-year "soft loan" of GBP1m. The agreement allowed Burn Stewart's chairman Bill Thornton to be an Ibrox "superfan" and have the firm's Scottish Leader brand promoted at the stadium, and also gave him - and the rest of the Burn Stewart board, including Walker - access to an executive box.

When asked about his allegiance to Rangers, Walker said: "It really came from my father, who was also a fan. I will say that I support Rangers for all the right reasons."

On Burn Stewart, he said: "That part of my life is history now, but I will say that we grew very quickly with new products and distillery acquisitions.

"We went public in 1991 and that basically made a long-term business think like a short-term one. It wasn't a situation I was ever very happy with.

"Right now, I'm more interested in the growth of BenRiach. My son, Alastair, works with me now on the sales and marketing side of the business, which I enjoy immensely.

"My hope is that one day this business will be his, and that the whisky industry will be as fantastic to him as it has been to me."

DISTILLING THE FACTS

Best moment: The birth of my children

Worst moment: I'm afraid I just don't have one.

What drives you? The next challenge

What do you drive? A three-year-old Jaguar Sovereign

Favourite book: I'm not an enthusiastic reader, but I'm learning French and Spanish, so I'm reading a lot of foreign newspapers these days.

What music are you listening to just now? I'm not interested in music. I think there's an Eagles cassette in my car.

As a child, what did you want to be?

A footballer. I wanted to play for Rangers.

Greatest achievement? My greatest achievement is always the most recent one, so BenRiach is it right now.