A passion for making whisky an experience
◆ Susan Morrison talks to Emma Newlands about her love for Scotland’s favourite drink and the stories which it can convey
“I think people don’t realise until they get involved that it’s not just another drink,” says Susan Morrison of whisky, a subject in which she is well-versed as one of the key names of an industry that she says is “hugely valuable” to the Scottish economy, to the tune of more than £7 billion a year, in fact.
Morrison is chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Experience (SWE), a landmark visitor attraction located at the top of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, and can lay claim to having welcomed 8.5 million visitors since its debut in 1988.
One of its key roles is educating those working in the sector, in a bid to boost the talent pipeline in the wake of Brexit and the pandemic, says the businesswoman, a firm believer that there is a whole universe of craftsmanship and characters behind the drink to discover.
“I think that’s what really engages them and inspires them,” says Morrison. “They learn about the history, they learn how it was [originally] just a cottage industry in Scotland, but it’s a global industry today. It’s an industry that’s all about people, and all the casks that have existed over the years and exist today.”
SWE itself is centred on educating the public about the drink, and at the tail end of last year revealed an upgrade of its offering providing an “immersive journey that delves deep into the heart of whisky-making”. That includes visitors being seated inside a vast virtual whisky cask, as part of the investment of about £3 million, complementing £15.5m ploughed into upgrading the attraction to date.
When the new upgraded centre was unveiled Morrison said: “Bringing a wealth of experience together to work as a productive and creative team is the key to any successful project.
“Everyone listened to each other to enable us to deliver something spectacular, educational and unique to our visitors.” And now, a few months into the new iteration, she reports that visitors have been literally and metaphorically toasting the upgrade; the way whisky is made “can be a boring subject, so it’s about bringing it to life”.
The 2023 revamp marked the latest chapter for the attraction that was created when 19 companies in the industry chipped in to invest £2m to shine a dazzling spotlight on its positive qualities.
It now welcomes around 300,000 visitors a year, 80 per cent of whom are international, buoyed by a postpandemic return of US visitors. That sits against the backdrop of Scotland’s flagship museums, galleries and historic sites attracting an extra 7.1 million
It’s an industry that’s all about people, and all the casks that have existed over the years
Susan Morrison
visitors last year to reach 48.6 million.
“We’re in that unique position of being able to tell a generic whole story of Scotch whisky,” says Morrison of the centre being unaffiliated to any particular brand, adding that it is a close partner of trade body the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), which has also found that the sector is now responsible for generating £3 in every £100 of Scotland’s total gross value added, and is the nation’s secondmost productive industry, just behind energy.
It also says Scotland is now home to more than 140 distilleries, with a very recent addition Port Ellen on Islay that has just reopened, representing the final chapter in the £185m investment by parent company Diageo, which has also seen the reopening of the other famous “ghost” distillery Brora, plus investment in its Scotch whisky visitor experiences.
The SWA also recently raised a glass to the alcohol duty freeze in the recent Budget, with the trade body having made many calls for as much government support as possible to help buoy the Scotch whisky sector, the latter a viewpoint supported by Morrison.
Her own route into the industry came after she studied German and Russian, and felt tourism would be a good blend with this.
She joined what is now known as SWE in 2000, and she was also that year named a Keeper of the Quaich (an honour bestowed on a very select and highly renowned group of whisky industry experts), and became a Master
of The Quaich a decade later, one of the first of a growing list of women to hold the title.
SWE has an almost equal gender split across its workforce, with women outweighing men on the leadership team, she notes, with top female master blenders such as Stephanie Macleod and Dr Rachel Barrie plus Port Ellen’s Aimée Morrison. “There’s a real cohort of women in the industry now,” the visitor attraction CEO says.
Recent accolades racked up by SWE include High Growth Business of the Year at the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce Annual Business Awards, while priorities for Morrison, who has held the CEO reins since 2018, says it is always carefully plotting where to make its next investment. A key jewel in its crown remains its Diageo Claive Vidiz Whisky Collection of 3,384 bottles, forming a vast and sparkling Technicolour display.
“It is a great backdrop to come to the end of your tour to be standing amongst what is, in essence, a work of art, with so many stories behind it. We're very honoured to be able to show it to the public.”
And that echoes her view of the sector as a whole (which is also increasingly popular as an investment vehicle for consumers) – saying it is fascinating on a daily basis.
“I love people, I’m passionate about whisky, and about Scotland. There are very few days I feel that I really ‘work’, because I enjoy something about each day.”