Plans for £10.7m distillery in Glasgow announced

Scottish bottler Douglas Laing & Co. has announced plans for a new £10.7 million “urban whisky distillery and bottling complex” on the banks of the River Clyde in Glasgow.

(L-R) Cara Laing, Danny MacLennan, Fred Laing and Chris Leggat.

The development will be at Pacific Quay, a waterfront site in Govan, Glasgow, and will also see the release of a new Govan-based malt whisky, celebrating the connection between the firm and the site of its new distillery, which will also become the home of its head office, a visitor centre, a whisky laboratory and archive, bar and bistro.

Since it was founded in 1948, the company has depended on its filling programmes established with a range of distillers to create its own blends and has focused on a sales and marketing business model. Now the company will have its own distillery complete with a bottling and warehouse capacity on site.

Beyond private family money, the company will receive £855,000 from the Scottish Government through the Food Processing Marketing and Co-operation (FPMC) grant scheme – a £70 million funding programme for food and drink businesses across Scotland.

The new distillery will create up to 38 new jobs, and will see the existing Douglas Laing workforce almost treble from 22 to 60. It will also support the company’s ambitions of developing its trade in export markets. The company already exports to more than 50 countries and this latest investment paves the way for future expansion into the growing Chinese market for the first time.

‘Instead of being perceived as an independent bottler, we will become a distiller’

Cara Laing, granddaughter of the company’s founder, Fred Douglas Laing, and the director of whisky in the firm, said: “Until now we have depended on third party companies for our production requirements. These working associations have been and still are invaluable, but now we feel it’s time to be more in control of our own destiny and to build on our core and current business.

“With generation three firmly entrenched, we undertook a strategic review and identified an opportunity to become a distiller in our own right with a dedicated bottling and warehouse capacity. We believe this will see the core business develop at a rate of 15% year-on-year, helping to grow our existing brands while allowing us to introduce new marques, and seek out new international markets.

“Instead of being perceived as an independent bottler, we will become a distiller, owning the production process from start to finish – from barley to the bottle – with an initial capability of producing considerably more than 100,000 litres of alcohol per annum.”

Water will be piped to the distillery from Loch Katrine, which is the source of Glasgow’s water supply, and 300 tonnes of barley will be brought in from Scottish farms to produce its whisky. The company’s brands include Xtra Old Particular (XOP), Old Particular, Provenance, The Epicurean, Timorous Beastie, Scallywag, Rock Oyster, Big Peat and The King of Scots.

The new distillery is expected to be operational by the end of 2018, subject to planning permission from Glasgow City Council.