CASE STUDY

PAUL McDONAGH, owner of the Bon Accord ale house and malt whisky bar in Glasgow, is delighted that beer, cider and spirit duty has been frozen and said it was a great boost for Scotland’s tourism industry.

Bon Accord is currently the UK Whisky Bar of the Year and stocks many old and rare whiskies, including a 70-year-old Glenlivet.

Mr McDonagh, above, said Speyside whiskies are his pub’s biggest sellers and the 59-year-old, who has been operating the establishment in the city’s Charing Cross district for 18 years, said: ‘We sell an awful lot of whiskies. We have 500 malt whiskies on the gantry, so the fact the freeze is there will help bring down the price and will help investment in the whisky industry – which helps tourism.

‘It brings people to this country, it helps hoteliers, restaurateurs, bar owners, people who work at distilleries and in distillery centres, so

it is a massive boost for the economy as a whole for the country.’

Mr McDonagh added: ‘There isn’t much else in this country apart from tourism and whisky, and both of these go hand in hand. If the duty had gone up you don’t know how it’s going to affect you – it becomes a threat to your business.

‘Any increase in duty is something you’re going to have to combat, so the fact it’s something you don’t have to worry about is a great thing. Obviously we still have Brexit to worry about in the future, so we’ll see how that goes.’