Scotch Whisky Review
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SCOTCH WHISKY REVIEW TM TM EDITION 15 SPRING 2001 PERNOD-A-GO-GO! Loch Fyne Whiskies is proud to feature, for the third boss running, the head of malt distilling for the industry leader, UDV. Previously we have interviewed Alan Rutherford of UD and Ronnie Mar- tin of DCL. That all three have been head of the same group of distilleries but with different owners reflects the condi- tion of commerce in Britain at this time. Our talk with Mr. Hutton highlights his attention to efficiency, but with an over- riding consistent quality proviso. Both are essential for commercial survival but quality and variety of character are the particular desire of the readers of Scotch Whisky Review. At present Federal and European Com- missions are considering the disposal of Seagram’s alcohol enterprise. As it stands, a joint bid from the par- ents of UDV and Campbell Distillers has won with a £5.5 billion deal. The Chivas BRUICHLADDICH HEROES group, Seagram’s principal Scotch inter- Would you buy malt whisky from these crazy Laddies? We hope so! The new board est, will go to Pernod Ricard (the parent of Bruichladdich Distillery meet for their first dram together in our shop in Febru- of Campbell) for their £2.1bn contribu- ary after their successful and historic acquisition of the distillery. Pictured are the tion. The Chivas deal rockets Pernod fund raising heroes: Simon Coughlin, Mark Reynier and Gordon Wright (collec- from ‘small fry’ with three malt distill- tively known as Murray McDavid), Jim McEwan and Andrew Gray. eries (Aberlour, Edradour & The Gospel according to Jim; page 4. Glenallachie) to Scotland’s distilling number two owning twelve. Further- SEAGRAM PULL OUT SMALL ADS—WANTED more, Scotch will become the biggest Subject to the approval of monopolies Would anyone with a couple of spare pot sector of the Pernod group. and merger authorities, it looks as if Al- stills please get in touch with LFW has yet to be impressed with Pernod lied Domeq have lost their yearlong bat- Springbank Distillers? (to be at least polite); evidence is that of tle to buy the drinks business of the now Chairman Hedley Wright has bought volume over style, growth over attention, entertainment-driven Seagram empire. the buildings of Glengyle Distillery, just failing particularly in understanding cus- A joint bid from Diageo and Pernod up the road from Springbank. It was tomer expectations for single malts. Ricard of $8.15 billion (Diageo $5bn, started by his great uncle William The list of distilleries from Seagram in- Pernod 3.15bn)has been accepted. Mitchell but closed in 1925 during cludes many, if not lemons, at least sour- Diageo, who through UDV is already the Campbeltown’s gloom years. plooms. Glen Keith and Benriach are Scotch whisky leader, will pass up all This is a significant commitment of ex- recent official bottling casualties, so Scotch interests (except Windsor Pre- penditure; the buildings are in good or- what chance the automated Allt à mier—big in Korea) for the wine, rum der but bare of equipment. Already the Bhainne, Braeval, or Caperdonich? and brandy interests. search is on for a pair of stills; When reviewing their new and daunt- Pernod, with current Scotch sales of Rosebank’s and various Speysiders are ing portfolio Pernod will look to estab- 1.8m cases (principally Clan Campbell), already under consideration. Production lish focus. Aberlour, Glenlivet and Glen will become an 8.4m case enterprise is anticipated to start in 2005. Grant are secure, but what of the qual- bringing it to 3rd place—very close to Mr Wright’s decision to buy the site is ity and potential of Longmorn and Allied. Industry analyst Alan Gray of clearly an emotive one. Apart from the Strathisla and how about making ING Barings said “This is more good family connection, he wishes to see bottlings of all their assets available— news. To see another committed big Campbeltown producing more great such as UDV do. player will help to vitalise the market.” whiskies, as before. SCOTCH WHISKY REVIEW — LOCH FYNE WHISKIES, INVERARAY, ARGYLL, PA32 8UD PAGE 1 retain the 27 we have. The investment goes at closing them—we were hoping THE HELMSMAN required is too great. It has been con- that the first closure might be enough sidered because of the new canal project but after two years we had to do it again. but how many more visitor-centre dis- Eventually a total of 21 malt and three tilleries do we need? grain went. We then had a further ten LFW: And Port Ellen? years to manage the surplus stocks out The vandals have done a pretty good job of the inventory. I think we did that re- and I would rather remove it but we sponsibly; we didn’t dump, we over-aged have a preservation order slapped on us and sold surpluses instead. “because it’s got pagodas”—yes, corru- People had certain views on the DCL. gated-iron pagodas! It’s a rundown eye- They thought it a sleeping giant if some- sore of a place. what disconnected. With hindsight As for selling it, we have a maltings sit- maybe so but the management were ting there which is important to the is- hugely supportive of the operational side land and having a distillery at the back of things. They had built the business owned by someone else doesn’t make any on acquiring production assets and they sense. Lagavulin and Caol Ila are very were very cognisant of their social re- important to us and I don’t see any sponsibilities; the ordinary employee of benefits for UDV in doing anything with the DCL thought it a good company to Port Ellen other than tidying the site. work for, sons followed fathers. LFW: Have you any good news? They were gentlemen and in something We are honoured to feature I started this job with 27 malt distilleries of a time lock. I don’t think their alleged Turnbull Hutton of United Distill- and when I retire I intend there will be long lunches were a bad thing. There are ers & Vintners. UDV is the spirits 27, all running efficiently plus two grain a lot of good things in the whisky indus- section of Diageo’s GuinnessUDV, distilleries running flat out. From the try and long lunches—when you drank which is the new name for the 1970s we had 30 years of closing things your product—was one of them. Now we merged activities of Guinness and but that’s over now. We became a world eat sandwiches and drink fizzy water, Grand Metropolitan, soon to be a class closer-down. Well not any more. it’s terrible. I try to resist that! ‘Total Alcohol Beverage Company’. I’ve seen growth and closure. My first LFW: Then along came Guinness. LFW: What’s your job? job in the mid-sixties was for the Dis- At that time DCL had five stockholding I am Operations Director of Distillation tiller’s Company as a bond clerk in South companies, Walkers, Buchanans, and Spirit Supply, which involves the Queensferry, the best training ground as Dewars, White Horse and Torphold (the production of all spirits right up to the it was a blending and packaging plant other brands) all effectively competing point of bottling. I am responsible to the for all the small DCL brands—a lot of with each other. After Guinness we set head of GuinnessUDV Global Supply variety. They gave me six months in each about consolidating them, a plan we had which includes Guinness and all over- area: cooperage, bulk blends, bond de- drawn up prior to the takeover. Over seas spirit production. partment, warehouse rents etc. By the four or five months we picked up one A wide range of spirits is now produced late 1960s they were shutting down vari- company per month, consolidated the in Scotland, including gins (Gordons, ous small plants around Edinburgh to stock, gathered the recipes, reclassified Tanqueray), vodkas (Smirnoff) and oth- move to Leven in Fife. I managed to wan- the malts and moved on. We then had ers such as Malibu, all of which are pro- gle a job managing the bond department control over inventory and realised the duced at Cameronbridge in Fife. I have where I spent six years before I moved industry’s surplus was all ours! Every- responsibility for 27 malt and two grain to production headquarters to work with one else was short of stock because they distilleries, three maltings and eight Ronnie Martin who took a shine to me, had over cooked their cutbacks or their warehouse complexes holding 1.1 billion despite our being very different. markets had developed and they didn’t litres of alcohol. I also have a My job was stock scheduling and Secre- have the right stock profile. So we made coppersmithing company and four coop- tary to the Production Committee. At quite a lot of money dribbling out our erages as well as research and quality that time DCL had 45 malt distilleries, surplus and re-established trading links control facilities. We also have a half all necessary because sales were grow- with the industry. After being so remote share in the North British Grain Dis- ing at a constant 10% per annum. No one for twenty years we were to become a tillery. was going to cut back production with part of the industry and take on a lead- My job is to interpret the predictions of sales growing like that. Then there was ership role.