The Spirit of Giving

Grace Ma

at Edrington are championed from ground up rather than top down. The Edrington Charity Cycle initiative was first mooted by its regional managing director for Asia-pacific and India, Martin Reimann, as a personal fitness goal that morphed into a meaningful adventure. It soon became an annual event that galvanised the company’s employees to support worthy causes. M’lop Tapang, for example, was chosen after a group of them had visited the shelter early last year and were moved by their experiences there. This focus on social responsibility at Edrington is directly catalysed by its unique ownership model under The Robertson Trust, one of Scotland’s largest funder of charitable causes, says Reimann. Established by the Scottish Robertson sisters Elspeth, Agnes and Ethel, The Robertson Trust has disbursed more than £230m to charities in Scotland since the 1960s through dividends from Edrington. (Edrington was founded by patriarch William Robertson and now distributes premium spirit brands,