Inver House Distillers gears up for new markets

The company has boosted production capacity at its Speyburn distillery

Inver House Distillers is taking on new international markets after completing a £10m investment programme.

The producer of single malt brands Old Pulteney, Balblair and Speyburn has increased its maturation capacity by 20% in order to serve markets such as India, Kazakhstan and Poland.

The Airdrie-based firm has also built 12 new warehouses, raising total capacity to 600,000 casks of whisky.

It has also boosted production capacity at its Speyburn distillery in Moray.

The distillery is now capable of producing 4.2 million litres of whisky per year.

Funding for the investment programme was provided by Bank of Scotland.

Inver House, which employs 204 people across its six sites in Scotland, currently exports mainly to Europe, the USA, Africa and the Far East.

Last year, it entered the Indian market by launching its major single malt brands and super premium Caorunn Gin.

Inver House owns a number of distilleries, including Old Pulteney in Wick

Managing director Graham Stevenson said: "Our brands performed well in 2015, growing and laying the foundations in many new international markets.

"We anticipate further opportunities and this growth will be underpinned in the coming years by the increased capacity, in terms of production and maturation storage, created as part of our investment programme.

"Looking at India as an example, we have had very positive feedback so far since our brands launched in the country where we conducted a programme of master class events in the cities of Delhi, Puni, and Mumbai.

"We are also about to launch in the travel retail sector, which is key to growth for imported brands in this marketplace, due to the very high import taxes businesses have to pay to get into the domestic market."

Bank of Scotland relationship director Mark Hull said: "Whisky exports remain buoyant, at over £4bn annually, despite various uncertainties, and remains the UK's second strongest contributor to national trade performance.

"The long-term view for Scotch whisky remains the same, despite some global challenging dynamics in key global powers such as Russia."