By Scott Wright
THE Scotch whisky company that is rebuilding the historic Rosebank Distillery in Falkirk has reported a near-doubling of profits.
Broxburn-based Ian Macleod Distillers, which makes the Glengoyne and Tamdhu single malts, made a profit before tax of £33.5 million in the year ended September 30, accounts newly filed at Companies House show. The distiller had made a profit of £18.7m the year before.
Turnover increased by 30 per cent to £132.2m from £101.7m.
The accounts were published as Ian Macleod continues work on the £12 million restoration of Rosebank, which has been mothballed since 1993. It is hoped the distillery, which will incorporate a new visitor attraction, will be operational in late summer. Ian Macleod took over the site in 2017.
Writing in the accounts, the directors state: “Trading in cased and bulk goods grew strongly in the year, with growth in bottled single malts and bulk malt whiskies the main cause. Releases of pre-1993 Rosebank and the repacking of Glengoyne helped to improve the bottled single malt result.
“Covid still affected the visitor centres as they experienced long periods of closure. When they were open, the number of visitors they could accept was lower than before. The loss of contribution from the visitor centres was mitigated by a VisitScotland grant and a business interruption insurance claim. Production operations at the distilleries were able to proceed as normal.”
The company highlights in the accounts its progress in building a presence for its Edinburgh Gin brand in the city, on East Market Street next to Waverley Station. It said it hoped to achieve permission to clear the adjacent street to accommodate the site works this month. The company also revealed plans to resume the construction of a new head office building, replacing Russell House. “All these projects will be funded from a combination of profitability and the significant headroom available on the [£100m] asset-based lending facility,” Ian Macleod said.
According to the accounts, the value of stocks held by the distiller increased by 7% or £9m to £137.4m after it “continued to invest in new fill stocks whilst older higher priced malt stocks were sold.”
Ian Macleod has established a subsidiary in Taiwan to improve the management of its malts in the region, revealing that it had broken even within its first six months.
Joint venture company Broxburn Bottlers Limited, which blends and bottles spirits, narrowed losses to £277,000 from £358,000. The distiller notes in the accounts that the operation continues to run at reduced capacity because of measures brought in to limit the spread of Covid, which Ian Macleod said has had a “knock-on effect on revenue, costs and profit”.
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