Whisky boss plots growth as plant takeover draws closer.
In het kort:
BenRiach Distillery Company neemt volgende maand de bottle-fabriek van Chivas Brothers te Newbridge over.
The acquisition, which is scheduled to be completed on July 31, also marks a previously undisclosed £6m investment by the company to increase the sales volume of its BenRiach and GlenDronach ranges of single malts via the Midlothian bottling plant, and it will also allow the company to push deeper in African markets with its blended brands.
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He (Billy Walker *) said: “This acquisition signals that it is time for us to take ownership of our future. It will push our turnover up by £4m to around £19m within the first year.
“But just as importantly, it will allow us to increase our focus on blended whisky.
“We have a couple of blended whiskies, one which is called Clan Murray, and that is performing very well in Africa.
“We’re interested in markets that the bigger players have not really penetrated – this is fertile ground for us.”
* ) Walker, the former operations director at East Kilbride distiller Burn Stewart who acquired the Elgin-based BenRiach distillery from French giant Pernod Ricard in 2004, said about 35% of the cost of the new plant had been raised from shareholders, with the remainder coming from bank debt.