Highland Park £750,000 Distillery Upgrade

[John]

Edrington Group has invested £750,000 in improving facilities at the Orkney distillery where it makes Highland Park whisky following a surge in sales for the drink.

The group said it had recorded an 80% increase in sales of Highland Park in the last four years, which had put the whisky into the top 10 of global single malts for the first time in its 211 year history.

Supported by £18m investment in the brand, Highland Park appears to have been a big beneficiary of increased demand for single malts in areas like Asia and the trend for affluent drinkers to move upmarket.

advertisementJason Craig, global controller, Highland Park, said while the UK remained the biggest and most important market, the group had developed the international footprint of the brand.

"In particular, we have seen fast category growth in Asian markets. Countries such as Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea are now becoming increasingly focused on premium brands and are trading up from high-end blends to aged and rare single malts."

He noted that Japan had taken the largest consignment of the newest addition to the 40-year-old whisky, the latest addition to the Highland Park range.

"Other important growth markets, such as Singapore and Taiwan, are following suit and we are now well placed to grow sales of Highland Park and other Edrington expressions through two new sales-and-distribution companies we have established in Taipei and Seoul plus a regional headquarters in Shanghai," Craig said.

The Scotch Whisky Association recently reported that Scotch whisky exports reached a new high of more than £3bn in 2008, underlining the industry's importance to the Scottish economy.

The equivalent of 1,080 million bottles of Scotch whisky were shipped overseas, the industry's second best ever volume performance.

A number of other whisky firms including Ian MacLeod Distillers and Burn Stewart Distillers have reported strong growth in sales in Asian countries in recent months.

Glasgow-headquartered Edrington showed a 30.5% rise in underlying pre-tax profits to £94.8m in the year to March. Turnover increased by 44% to £419.9m.

The investment at the Highland Park distillery in Kirkwall will support the revamp of the visitor centre and replace two pagoda roofs.

John