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News
Ardgowan Distillery gets go-ahead
Plans for a new £12 million distillery and visitor centre at Ardgowan in the Lowlands of Scotland have been approved by the local Council.
Ardgowan Distillery’s chief executive Martin McAdam
Work is set to start this year on the new Ardgowan Distillery and it is expected to be operational in 2019. As well as the visitor centre and distillery, which will be built on the site of an old sawmill on the Ardgowan Estate, the plans include a microbrewery and a gin still.
The distillery’s chief executive Martin McAdam said the goal was to produce a “truly outstanding” seven-year-old lowland single malt, drawing on the “tremendous heritage and natural resources” in the local area, which would have a “very positive” impact on Inverclyde.
The distillery has already appointed the former managing director of The Macallan, Willie Phillips as chairman, along with former Bruichladdich marketing director Gordon Wright, who will advise on commercial development, and the former director of Guinness’s brewing redevelopment Michael Egan, who will advise on the engineering design of the distillery.
“We have a tremendous team on board and are now looking for our next round of investors who can join us on this very exciting journey,” McAdam said.
“In the coming weeks we will commence detailed design and procurement work for the construction of the distillery, and this will give us the opportunity to engage with local businesses and the public in order to develop our plan and start to employ the staff that will be engaged during the construction and operational stage.”
Sir Ludovic Shaw-Stewart, owner of the Ardgowan Estate, said the distillery would mark a “fantastic new chapter” in the history of this area, and would be the cornerstone of the regeneration of the 600-year old Ardgowan Estate.
The plans, which were approved by Inverclyde Council yesterday, will also see the resurrection of the Ardgowan Distillery name, a distillery founded in 1896 in Greenock that primarily produced grain spirit and industrial alcohol until it was destroyed by bombs during the war.
The site of the proposed distillery