GlenDronach Set To Return To Its Former Glory

[John]

Billy Walker, the owner of BenRiach Distillery Company, has unveiled an ambitious £7m investment plan to bolster its recently acquired GlenDronach whisky brand in stark contrast to the turmoil elsewhere in the sector.

The idea behind the multimillion-pound investment is to restore GlenDronach to its former glory - back in the 1960s, it was among the top five most popular malt whisky brands in the world - and to drive it into new global markets.

Walker's Larbert-based company, with the help of "two very entrepreneurial shareholders" in South Africa, acquired GlenDronach distillery, in Forgue, Aberdeenshire, in August 2008, after having had his "eye on it" for several years. He also owns BenRiach distillery near Elgin.

Walker, the former operations director at East Kilbride distiller Burn Stewart, revealed that over the next four years he will spend £5m on sherry casks, where future batches of GlenDronach will mature for up to 33 years, and a further £2m on brand promotion and raising staff levels.

"This is a real testament to our ambitions as a small whisky distiller," Walker said.

"We are making sure the whisky coming through is of the highest quality. We could have chosen to produce our whisky in a much cheaper way, but that would have affected the quality. As a small, niche distiller, that cannot be the way forward."

He added: "After the sherry casks, the remainder of the £7m will be for recruitment and promotion. We currently employ 30 people, and we're looking for another five right now."

Walker's decision to invest £7m in GlenDronach flies in the face of the current upheaval in the sector. The past few months alone have seen Whyte & Mackay announce plans to axe 100 jobs and rival Diageo threaten to slash another 900.

Whyte & Mackay has blamed the global recession as well as the UK's "punitive" taxes for the decision to axe almost a fifth of its workforce. At the same time Diageo warned its bottling operations could be moved abroad if Scotland does not remain globally competitive.

Nonetheless, Walker said: "The industry is still very strong. Malt whisky is a strong sector - especially at the premium end of the market.

"Personally, I think Diageo has been unfairly treated. In spite of the 900 jobs, they are committed to Scotland, and they employ thousands here.

"At the end of the day, we're pursuing the same dream as Diageo - to sell good malt whisky all over the world."

Asked about his decision to acquire GlenDronach distillery, he said: "We had our eye on it for ages. Back in the 1960s, when it was owned by Teachers, it was one of the top five malt whiskies in the world - albeit the malt whisky industry in those days was much smaller. It has gradually fallen out of view, but it has maintained a kind of cult status.

"In 2002, Allied Distillers re-activated the distillery, which had been mothballed since 1996, to keep up with demand for whisky used in its blended brands. Very little went into bottles as malt.

"By the time Pernod owned the distillery, the brand had moved away from the centre of the radar. There were less than 20,000 bottles sold as malt whisky when we acquired it.

"GlenDronach was non-core to them, but for us it was a real opportunity."

Walker added that in the first year of ownership, a number of new "expressions" have been added and around 150,000 bottles have been sold worldwide.

"After five years, we expect to sell more 240,000 bottles. Our plan is to restore GlenDronach restore it to where we think it belongs."

John

Source: The Herald