A GLASGOW businessman has drawn up plans to create a body that would offer protection to the multitude of small businesses that have begun producing specialist Scottish spirits in the past few years.

Stephen White, who co-owns a number of Glasgow pubs including Maggie May's and The Griffin and founded the Scottish Gin Society in 2016, has registered the names The Scottish Spirits Society and The Scottish Spirits Association as trade marks.

The plan, he said, is to work alongside other organisations such as Scotland Food & Drink to find a way to protect businesses operating in the sector in the same way the Scotch Whisky Association looks after the interests of the whisky industry.

“There are new gins coming out almost on a weekly basis,” Mr White said.

“What has become apparent is that there are other spirits that are in the process of being made or are in the pipeline to be made with the current generation of Scottish distillers.

“A number of people making gin started out life wanting to make whisky but started with gin for cashflow.

“People have now realised that there’s the opportunity to make other spirits like rum or vodka.”

Among the rums currently on the market are Solway Spiced Rum from Annan-based Solway Spirits and Dunedin Rum from the Methven-based Strathearn Distillery. Vodka, meanwhile, is being produced by The Glasgow Distillery and Ogilvy Spirits in Angus.

While the market is still in its early stages, Mr White said a formal organisation would be of benefit to both consumers and producers if production escalates in the same way it has for gin.

“I’ve registered these trade marks to ensure that if the interest in the gin market comes into the arena of all these new spirits we have a vehicle to use that is similar to the Scottish Gin Society,” he said.

“The Scottish Gin Society is a consumer-facing organisation which aims to inform the general public about what’s going on in the world of Scottish gin.

“We promote anything that’s happening in the gin industry.

“With regards to the Scottish Spirits Society, if we were to take it forward we would be much more focused on the industry rather than consumers because the big issue is about provenance and how you define what is a Scottish spirit.”

With the gin market taking off in the past few years there are now well over 100 Scottish gins being produced by over 60 distilleries, but there is no clear consensus about what constitutes a Scottish gin.

Mr White noted that for some purists a gin would have to be produced in its entirety in Scotland to be classed as Scottish while for others some products distilled elsewhere should also qualify.

From the Scottish Gin Society’s point of view, a product has to be distilled in Scotland in order to promote itself as a Scottish product.

While it does list other gins on the A to Z section of its website - for example, the Glasgow Gin and Barra Atlantic Gin, which are both contract distilled in England for companies that are based north of the Border - it makes it clear what their provenance is and will not promote any product that has no clear link to the country.

“What the distilling industry in Scotland is trying to do is create a brand around Scottish gin,” Mr White said.

“I’m trying to promote that Scotland has an amazing opportunity but in order to do that we have to iron out the rogue brands that appear to be representing themselves as Scottish but in fact aren’t.

“We also need a vehicle that could give some protection to the new Scottish spirits industry.”