Scottish distillery eyes spirit lifting history
IT HAS survived world wars, Prohibition and The Great Depression, but this may very well be the toughest time yet for Scotland’s oldest whisky maker.
The Glenturret Distillery, located on the banks of the River Turret 3.2km northwest of the town of Crieff, was established in 1763 and is a popular stop for whisky enthusiasts.
Apart from the rushing river and a distiller rolling oak barrels into a filling house, The Glenturret, which closed to visitors during the Covid-19 lockdown, is eerily quiet.
Travel restrictions that came with the pandemic have caused sales to fall at the distillery, in pubs and restaurants, and at airport duty-free shops.
But it is a 25 per cent tariff on Scotch imposed by the United States in October 2019 and now a slow-down in exports to Europe after the end of the Brexit transition that is hitting profits the hardest.
“It has been a really tough period for us with Covid, US tariffs and Brexit as well,” the distillery’s managing director, John Laurie, told AFP.
“Covid in particular affects our tourism. Then the export markets have been impacted by Brexit and Scottish whisky tariffs in America have been really troublesome.”
Laurie said the increased paperwork and export requirements after Britain’s departure from the European single market on December 31 had delayed shipments to the bloc.
The distillery warns customers on its website that shipments to the EU have been put on hold while it tries to get deliveries going again.
“We have great demand over in Europe and we have the will to try and supply them, so where there is a will there’s a way – and we will find a way through this tough period,” said Laurie.
On the rocks
The troubles faced by The Glenturret are shared across the whisky industry.
According to the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) in February, global exports of Scotch fell by more than £1.1 billion ($1.5 billion) to £3.8 billion in 2020.
Exports to the EU fell by more than 15 per cent to £1.25 billion in 2020, it added.
The impact on sales after the post-Brexit transition are yet to be measured but are also expected to take a heavy knock.
Tariffs on exports to the United States – the industry’s most valuable market – were imposed after a dispute between the EU, UK and US governments over subsidies granted to aerospace companies Airbus and Boeing.
Before the levy, the US market
for Scotch was valued at £1.06 billion. By 2020 it had fallen by 32 per cent to £729 million.
SWA CEO Karen Betts said the figures were “a grim reminder” of the challenges faced by distillers in Scotland, where some 10,000 people are directly employed by the industry.
“In effect, the industry lost 10 years of growth in 2020 and it’s going to take some time to build back to a position of strength,” she said after the release of the figures earlier in February.
Old and resilient
Betts said Scotch whisky was
losing considerable ground in the United States due to the tariffs that could have been avoided had the UK, EU and US governments and the European and American aerospace industries been “less intransigent”.
“That governments and companies have allowed their
dispute to continue while the livelihoods of real people, and the future of one of Scotland’s oldest industries, are put at stake reflects badly on them,” she said.
The SWA has pleaded with the governments involved to immediately suspend the tariffs and end a trade war that it “has nothing to do with”.
The distillery, Laurie said, would draw on its history to make it through one of its most challenging periods.
“We’ve been through the prohibition era in America, we’ve been through wars, we’ve been through many different situations in our global economy and we still survived and came through,” he said.
“We are an incredibly old and resilient industry and fortunately we have a product that people enjoy around the world, so although times have been incredibly difficult, we just know we’re going to get through it.”
FORMER Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu was arrested on Monday as part of a police investigation into last year’s ‘Barcagate’ scandal, a source with knowledge of the case said.
Bartomeu, who resigned as president in October, was among four arrests made just six days ahead of the club’s new presidential elections on Sunday.
Barcelona’s current chief executive Oscar Grau, head of legal services Roma Gomez Ponti and Bartomeu’s advisor Jaume Masferrer were also arrested by Catalan police, who searched the club’s offices on Monday morning.
Grau and Gomez Ponti were released late on Monday but Bartomeu and Masferrer would spend the night in a cell at a Barcelona police station before appearing before a judge on Tuesday, Spanish media reported.
Catalan police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, said in a statement the arrests were made as part of “an investigation into alleged crimes related to property and the socio-economic order” that has “been going on for almost a year”.
Barcelona released a statement confirming the operation is linked to last year’s ‘Barcagate’ controversy, when the club was accused of covering up payments made to a company called I3 Ventures, hired to boost the image of then-president Bartomeu on social media.
Part of the social media campaign included criticising current and former players, like Lionel Messi, Pep Guardiola
and Xavi Hernandez. Messi described the controversy as “strange” in an interview with Catalan newspaper Mundo Deportivo.
“FC Barcelona have offered up their full collaboration to the legal and police authorities to help make clear facts which are subject to investigation,” the club said in its statement.
“The information and documentation
requested by the judicial police force relate strictly to the facts relative to this case.”
Spanish radio station Cadena Ser claimed Barca paid I3 Ventures an inflated fee and put payments through in smaller, separate amounts to avoid the club’s financial controls.
Emili Rousaud, who resigned as Barcelona vice-president
in March last year, said in an interview with RAC1 at the time: “If the auditors tell us the cost of these services is €100,000 and we have paid one million, it means someone has had their hand in the till.” The club took legal action against him.
Rousaud was among six Barca executives to leave their posts, with a joint letter citing the scandal as a key issue
needing to be resolved.
‘Plugging gaps’
Bartomeu maintained the company had been hired only to monitor posts on social media and announced an internal audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which cleared the club of financial corruption in July.
“Let one thing be clear,” Bartomeu said. “To the question: Have we commissioned the monitoring of social networks? The answer is yes.
“To the question: Have we commissioned to discredit people or institutions through social networks? The answer is no and we will take action against all those who accuse us of that.”
Yet Bartomeu resigned in October, avoiding a vote of no confidence triggered after more than 20,000 club members signed a petition against him.
His departure came in the same month Barcelona announced losses of €97 million ($114 million) for last season and debts that had more than doubled to €488 million.
As well as a series of political blunders, Bartomeu had also overseen a dramatic decline in performances on the pitch and a personal fallingout with Messi, who tried to leave for free last summer.
Messi accused the club of “always juggling everything and plugging gaps” under Bartomeu’s leadership.
Bartomeu’s successor is due to be elected on Sunday, when club members will choose between the final three candidates, Joan Laporta, Toni Freixa and Victor Font.
“In light of events that took place today, we express our respect for the police and the judiciary, and we defend the presumption of innocence. And we deeply regret that these events diminish the reputation of the club,” said Laporta.
“Too many people want to hurt Barca,” wrote Freixa on Twitter. “We will not allow it.”