TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Friday March 7, 1997

Glenmorangie takes over at Ardbeg

Islay’s Ardbeg Distillery has been bought by Glenmorangie plc for £7 million.

Allied Domecq plc, which owned Ardbeg Distillery, will receive £5 million of the total sum in tranches within the next three years.

The sale includes the Ardbeg brand, the distillery and surrounding land as well as the stock profile which will come on stream as Ardbeg 10-year-old and 20-year-old stocks mature.

It will significantly strengthen Glenmorangie’s current portfolio of malt whiskies which include Glenmorangie and Glen Moray and will provide excellent potential for new brand development, utilising the company’s proven experience in premium brand management.

Commenting on the acquisition, Geoffrey Maddrell, chairman of Glenmorangie plc, said: ‘The company has made significant progress since the introduction of a new strategy in 1995.

‘We are particularly confident that our existing portfolio will continue to deliver above average growth and we wish to exploit our marketing capability to achieve a similar success rate with this Islay malt. An opportunity such as Ardbeg, in a segment of the market which remains under developed, provides us with a rare opportunity.’

Glenmorangie is well positioned in the Scotch whisky market, with a strong presence in the malt sector which grew by 12.3 per cent in the year to October 1996 in export markets and by 16 per cent from January to October 1996.