ISLE of Arran Distillers achieved a near-60 per cent hike in profits last year as it enjoyed success in markets including the US and Taiwan, its latest accounts have shown.
Euan Mitchell, the company's managing director, yesterday highlighted his expectation that the Scotch whisky distiller would achieve a further rise in profits this year.
Isle of Arran's latest accounts show it raised pre-tax profits by 58 per cent in 2013, to £549,639 from £348,513 in the prior 12 months, as turnover climbed to £4.56 million from £3.65 million. The distiller noted these were its best-ever annual results.
Chairman Michael Peirce, in his statement on the accounts, said that France remained Isle of Arran Distillers' biggest export market overall but had been overtaken by the US in terms of sales of single-malt Scotch whisky.
He says: "The USA has been a focus market for us over the past few years and it is gratifying to see this hard work bearing fruit and, encouragingly, there remains an enormous amount of potential for growth."
Taiwan was another success story for the distiller in 2013, with sales up 130 per cent on 2012 on the back of "soaring" demand for single casks and other limited-edition expressions of The Arran Malt.
Mr Peirce flags strong growth in the UK market last year, following a change of distributor in 2012, and cites particular success in the independent retail channel.
New markets for Isle of Arran Distillers in 2013 included Belarus, Vietnam and South Africa.
Mr Peirce also highlights the distiller's plans to expand distribution into Latin America, declaring it is a "region with huge potential for the future".
Isle of Arran Distillers employs 30 staff, in a mixture of full and part-time roles. Nine of these employees are based at the company's head office outside Stirling, with the remainder at the distillery at Lochranza.
Construction of the distillery started in December 1994, with first spirit flowing the following year.
Mr Mitchell noted that Leslie Auchincloss, a Scottish businessman who lives near Cork in the Republic of Ireland, was the majority shareholder of Isle of Arran.
Whisky industry veteran Harold Currie, who founded Isle of Arran Distillery, retains a minority stake in the company.
Mr Mitchell highlighted the company's £2 million investment programme at the distillery, which includes the addition of new warehouses, and highlighted plans to double production from half-a-million litres of pure alcohol (LPA) to more than one million LPA over about the next five years.
Highlighting Isle of Arran Distillers' relative youthfulness, Mr Mitchell said: "It is really pleasing to see that our approach and hard work is delivering results. We are something of an overnight success, nearly 20 years in the making."
While highlighting Isle of Arran Distillers' success in the US and Canada, Mr Mitchell said the company had seen the market in Ukraine grind to a halt amid the crisis in that country.
He also cited weakness of sales to Russia, largely as a result of the rouble's tumble against the pound.
However, he said: "Taiwan is doing well for us as we try to broaden the reach out more in Asia."
Mr Mitchell said the distiller's sales in China were "small but growing".
Commenting on the outlook, Mr Mitchell said: "We still see the market being buoyant. Whisky has been good for a few years. It will certainly continue [to be so] this year, and into next year. Thereafter remains to be seen."
He added: "We are starting from a low base. We still see the world [offering] huge opportunity for us."
Asked about the issue of Scottish independence, Mr Mitchell replied: "The two key issues are the currency and the membership of the EU [European Union]. The uncertainty there is not entirely helpful. Whatever happens, we will work with it. We will strive to continue to make it [the business] a success."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article