The Speyside distillery majority-owned by Scotch whisky veteran Billy Walker has posted a further rise in profits, against a backdrop of global economic and geopolitical upheaval.

The GlenAllachie Distillers Company has reported a pre-tax profit of £8.94 million for the year ended December 31, up from £7.7m, accounts newly filed at Companies House reveal. Turnover leapt to £23.2m from £20.7m the year before, when revenue exceeded £20m for the first time, the accounts show.

The accounts were filed as Scotch whisky distillers grapple with the fall-out from a host of economic and geopolitical challenges, including conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East, which have led to sales coming under pressure in certain key markets over recent months.

This has come after sales boomed in 2022, when the industry saw demand soar after Covid restrictions eased and global travel reopened. Distributors and retailers overseas are continuing to work through stock exported during this period of high demand.

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Speaking recently to The Herald, Mr Walker, who acquired GlenAllachie with industry confidantes Trisha Savage and Graham Stevenson in 2017, acknowledged that it had not been an “easy year” as he mulled the company’s performance for the period covered by the new accounts.

He highlighted the impact of the increase in interest rates which sparked “the end of cheap money” and has been felt across the global supply chain. But he said higher interest rates were less of an issue in markets where people are less pre-occupied by home ownership, and declared that he was “not down-hearted because Asia, which is very important to us, is still doing okay”.

Mr Walker, who celebrated his 50th year in the industry in 2022, said: “It might be a little bit slow at the moment but I’m pretty confident that once things have equilibrated we will be back on track. I’m not really too down on it. I think it was inevitable that there would be an impact from higher interest rates.

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“We also had a problem that we had rebranded GlenAllachie, so we had the challenge of importers and retailers having to run down to the old livery to get the new stuff in. But by and large we are not too far off track. We are confident that our expectations for the year will be fulfilled by the time we come to the end of the year.”

Mr Walker led the acquisition of GlenAllachie after he and his partners sold the BenRiach Distillery Company to Brown-Forman for £285m in 2016. Since then, GlenAllachie has built a strong following for its whiskies around the world, most notably in Asia where Mr Walker has highlighted its popularity in South Korea, Taiwan, China, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

GlenAllachie is spearheaded by its core range of eponymous single malts, ranging from eight to 30 years old, though it also sells blended malt and blended Scotch whiskies under the MacNair's and White Heather brands. In September it launched a new peated malt range, Meikle Toir, meaning “the big pursuit”, to industry acclaim, while other recent additions to its portfolio include Jamaica and Panama rum, which are further matured in wine casks and peated rum in bourbon casks.

Writing in the accounts, Mr Walker states: “Sales in bottled single malt Scotch whisky cased goods continued to grow strongly during the year, showing an increase of 9% on [the] previous year. In addition, the company introduced to the market a range of fine wood finishes, batch editions, single cask bottlings.

“There were also several customer exclusive bottlings. In September we launched our peated single malt whisky, Meikle Toir. The significance of this was that it was not only peated but our own distillation. The company manged to maintain good control of costs to allow for margin stability at gross margin level when compared to the prior year.”

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The company notes in the accounts that it undertook a major refurbishment of the distillery’s visitor centre during the period, with the addition of a tasting room and bar. Mr Walker has said the visitor centre attracts whisky enthusiasts from around the world, and has observed it is now often difficult to get hotel accommodation in Speyside because of the influx of tourists.

A solar PV (photovoltaic) system, consisting of 150 390W modules in the field adjacent to the warehouses, was added by GlenAllachie in the latter part of the year, which is expected to generate 50% of the electricity the distillery needs during the summer months.

A mechanical vapour recompression system will be installed this year which the company said will increase efficiency and change the balance of energy used towards electricity.

During the year, the distiller invested £3.6m to purchase high quality casks from the UK, Europe, and the US, up from the £3.5m invested in casks last year.

The accounts state GlenAllachie employed a average of 35 staff over the period covered by the accounts, up from 31.