LOCH Lomond Group, the Scotch whisky distiller, has highlighted strong growth in markets both home and abroad as turnover surged to more than £50 million in its latest financial year.

The Glasgow-headquartered distiller, which makes the Loch Lomond and Glen Scotia whisky brands, grew revenue by nearly seven per cent following increased investment in its sales and marketing efforts, accounts newly filed at Companies House reveal.

The accounts were filed shortly after chief executive Colin Matthews, who led the £210 million private-equity-led buyout of Loch Lomond from the Bulloch family in 2014, revealed the current owners have invested £25m to reinvigorate the business since taking control. Its brands, which also include High Commissioner blended Scotch and Glen’s Vodka, are now sold in around 125 markets.

However, while turnover grew last year, the results show Loch Lomond made a £10m loss in the year ended September 30, down from £12.8m. Writing in the accounts, Mr Matthews states the the loss reflects the structure of the 2014 acquisition, explaining that it had been “executed as a sale of assets rather than a sale of shares”.

“Whilst this was the optimum deal structure from a legal and tax perspective, it means that the statutory accounts record the cost of maturing stock produced before 28 February 2014 in the profit and loss account at its market value (ie the cost at which the stock was acquired as part of the acquisition) rather than at production cost value,” he said. Mr Matthew emphasised that the loss “does not reflect the underlying performance of the business”.

According to the accounts, the value of whisky stock and finished goods held by the distiller stood at £112m at year end, an increase of £400,000 on the year before. “This reflects the company’s continued confidence in the global Scotch whisky industry and its investment in achieving growth in its markets around the world,” Mr Matthews said.

Loch Lomond, which is now the official spirit of The Open golf championship, has a signed a series of new distribution deals to boost its international presence since Mr Matthews acquired the firm with the backing of Exponent, the private equity firm which owns the Quorn food brand.

In an exclusive interview with The Herald earlier this month Mr Matthews, a former managing director of Imperial Tobacco, noted the impact made by deals with Stoli Group USA in the key North American market, retail giant Coles in Australia and Cofco in China, which he said has ambitions to become the biggest player in beer, wines and spirits in its home country. Other strong overseas markets for Loch Lomond are Japan, Taiwan and Russia.

Writing in the accounts, Mr Matthews said the distiller had achieved “strong international growth” during its most recent financial year.

“Our investment in additional international sales and marketing activities contributed to successful growth particularly for the Loch Lomond and Glen Scotia brands,” he said. “The Glen Scotia family was further strengthened with the launch of 18 year old and 25 year old variants and peated Inchmoan variants were added to the Loch Lomond Islands range. Littlemill continues to be a highly attractive and rare product for Scotch Whisky connoisseurs and specialists around the world.

“Our UK business performed well in financial year 2017 with continued focus on the commercial success of the Glen’s Vodka and High Commissioner Scotch Whisky brands. In particular, our Malt Scotch Whisky brands continued to develop successfully in the UK and this is something we continue to invest behind. We continued to operate actively in the global bulk Scotch whisky market and further expanded our portfolio of customers.”

The company said staff numbers increased by four per cent during the year to 217.

Mulling the outlook for the distiller, Mr Matthews added: “We continue to pursue the strategy of international expansion that we set out when we acquired the business in 2014. Our combination of great brands, targeted marketing and supportive distributors means that we continue to see strong growth for Loch Lomond Distillers and we look forward to further progress in the current financial year.”