Entrepreneurial spirit thrives at Stirling firm
Distillery design engineers build international name
A thirst for new and unusual spirits has provided a boost for a Stirling company.
Distillery design engineers Allen Associates is building up its international presence and targeting the craft distilling sector as it looks to build on significant growth over the past three years.
Founded in 1994 and based at the Stirling University Innovation Park, the company is the largest Scottish-based chemical and process engineering design consultancy serving the Scotch whisky and related industries.
And the growth of the craft distilling industry has helped Allen Associates grow from eight staff in 2014 to a team of 15 chemical engineers in 2017.
Over the past 12 months, the company has had a 100 per cent increase in the number of enquiries from craft distillers at home and overseas.
Fifteen new clients were secured during 2016 helping to boost turnover by 25 per cent to an estimated £1.25 million for the year, with further expansion anticipated in 2017.
In addition to new malt whisky distillery projects at Ardross, Eden Mill, Holyrood and Raasay distilleries in Scotland, the business has strengthened its international credentials with projects in seven countries, including a gin distillery in the Cote D’Azur and a whisky distillery in Bulgaria.
Allen’s success has come at a time in which there has been a renewed increase among British drinkers in gin. No fewer than 40 million bottles of gin were sold in the UK last year and about 100 new gin distilleries have opened in the past two years alone.
Managing director, Scott Allen, said: “Our work with global companies such as Edrington, William Grant & Sons, Beam Suntory, Glenmorangie and Diageo, will always be at the core of our business but we are also seeing significant commercial opportunities within the rapidly expanding global craft distillery industry.
“The continued expansion in this sector is good news for the distilling engineering service sector as each project requires engineering support from a network of associated businesses – the majority of which are based in Scotland.
“Although the UK remains our primary market, Allen Associates reputation in the field of chemical and process engineering in distilled spirits is spreading internationally. Approximately 10 per cent of our turnover is currently generated overseas but we see this increasing significantly as distilled spirits production continues to increase worldwide.”
Allen Associates has worked in more than 100 distilleries, project managing developments and helping design new processes and equipment specification to improve customer operations.
Mr Allen added: “Our expertise ranges from grain intake through to bottling and has taken us as far afield as Vietnam where we designed and commissioned a vodka bottling plant.”
Our expertise ranges from grain intake through to bottling and takes us as far afield as Vietnam