Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Raising a glass to No.1 distiller
Our reporter enjoys a tipple at award-winning Inver House
On the outskirts of Airdrie, a multi- million pound company quietly continues to gather momentum and take giant strides all over the world.
Set on the offside of Moffat Mills, the headquarters of Inver House Distillers dictates a global operation which has seen them crowned 2017’s Whisky Distiller of the Year.
Inver House, which has five single malt distilleries in the Highlands including Old Pulteney, Balblair, Knockdhu, Speyburn and Balmenach, distribute products to 90 countries and can house around 600,000 barrels of whisky in more than 40 on-site warehouses.
Owned by ThaiBev, one of South- East Asia’s leading beverage companies who are worth $17billion, Inver House have perfected an “art, not a science” which has contributed to the 44 golden-framed certificates hung proudly in their reception area.
Their managing director, Graham Stevenson, and master blender, Stuart Harvey, sat down with the Advertiser last week and opened up about one of Airdrie’s biggest businesses.
Graham told the Advertiser: “I’m very proud that we have won an award as prestigious as Whisky Distiller of the Year.
“I have no doubts that everything we bottle is terrific and stands up to any competition we face.
“I’ve no qualms about any of our products and we have 50 different malts on site to use for blending.
“We have great team morale and recognition like this only improves it further.
“There are a lot of interesting things happening over the next year and I’ve no doubt we’ll continue to be successful.”
Stuart, who has worked in brewing and blending for 30 years, added: “Our quality is as good as, if not better, than anyone else’s out there. I don’t mind saying that.
“Our malts are very distinctive and great for blending and I learn something new every single day.
“We hav e long-lasting relationships and partnerships with companies all over the world and I take a couple of big working trips every year to further them.
“We want to continually understand what the consumer enjoys, what blends to concentrate on and where our focus should be.
“For example, the most popular whisky in Holland, Boomsa, is our blend.
“I’ve taken trips to Japan, South Africa, Australia and the USA all for work; it’s a great career to have.”
The headquarters have been in Airdrie since 1964 when an American company, Publiker Industries, made the move from across the pond and launched Inver House Distillers.
It was taken over by Scottish directors in 1988 after the death of Publiker’s driving force, Sy Newman, and has gone from strength to strength.
An astonishing £ 120million is currently tied up in capital within Inver House’s HQ as their product matures for 12, 17 and 21 years before being distributed.
The subsidiary turns over around £80m every year, which is staggeringly the same number, in litres, of alcohol contained in the warehouses.
Graham explained: “It is a lot of money to have tied-up but that’s one of the many challenges for a distillery.
“This is a long- term business and the most interesting part is the maturation period.
“Today, we are blending and producing stock that we think we will need nearer 2030.
“You’re constantly looking at your estimates and adjusting your forecasts to be as accurate as possible.”
Recent success proves they are predicting the future accurately enough, with their Distiller of the Year gong preceded by their 21-yearold Old Pulteney winning World Whisky of the Year in 2012.
Master blender Stuart, who started off brewing beer in Yorkshire but has now nosed over 100,000 casks of whisky, added: “When I’m in the lab creating blends, my head is like a mind-map trying to compare all the different notes and tastes. This is a passion of mine and it is more of an art than a science.
“Recently I made a 50-year-old blend for another company and it had so much depth and complexity.
“If I could spend all day in the lab creating blends then I would!”
The company’s longest serving employee is whisky processor Eric Grant.
The 67-year-old, who has worked there for 46 years, smiled: “I have the best job in the world producing, filtering and processing the single malts.
“We have a real family atmosphere here and it’s a very clever industry to be involved in.
“When I stop learning on the job, that’ll be it for me!”
But MD Graham hopes it isn’t just the employees who learn from the company.
He said: “I’d like more locals to be aware of what we do and how international we are.
“You wouldn’t believe the wealth and power that’s driven up this backroad.
“Our boss at ThaiBev, Khun Charoen, is in the top 100 richest people in the world; if he was British, only two or three people in the country would be more wealthy than he is.
“I’d really like to be able to familiarise the brands with the local area and hope the Scottish government stop taking our industry for granted.”