THE chief executive of Scotch whisky distiller Loch Lomond Group has revealed the company is currently assessing two potential takeover targets.
Colin Matthews, who led the £210 million acquisition of Loch Lomond from the Bulloch family in 2014, said the private-equity-backed company is open to acquiring brands and distilleries as part of its growth strategy.
But he said it would only consider deals which would make a sizeable difference to Loch Lomond’s scale and help expand the business.
Speaking in today’s Herald, the former managing director of Imperial Tobacco, said: “We would like to [to deals]. We are always keen to look at stuff. We are looking at a couple of things just now actually. There are opportunities which come across our desk fairly regularly and we look at it and say: is it value enhancing, is it value creative for our business? How much time and effort goes into it? Is it the right size?”
The Scotch whisky industry has been comparatively quiet on the acquisition front in recent times. Much of the investment currently being made by distillers is focused on expanding capacity or re-opening mothballed sites.
The most notable deal of 2017 came when industry veteran Billy Walker led a consortium to acquire Speyside’s GlenAllachie Distillery from Chivas Brothers. Mr Walker had previously sold the BenRiach Distillery Company to Jack Daniel’s owner Brown-Forman for £285m in 2016.
Japanese giant Suntory ramped up its Scotch whisky presence in 2014 when it acquired Beam Inc, owner of Laphroaig and Teacher’s.
Mr Matthews said: “I suppose you could go and add on 100 little brands, but I would prefer to have a look at brands which have some sort of scale. Starting from scratch, we can do that ourselves.”
Meanwhile, asked for his views on Brexit, Mr Matthews said he is optimistic that the UK negotiators will do the “right thing” for the country. But he said the best outcome will only be achieved if the voice of business is heard.
Interview, page 23
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 here