Murray exits as Inverarity Morton buys Forth Wines
editor: INVERARITY Morton, the drinks merchant owned by whisky industry veteran Sandy Bulloch, has bought rival Forth Wines in a seven-figure deal that triggers payouts for investors Sir David Murray and Scottish Enterprise.
The deal, which was signed late on Tuesday night and which will be unveiled today, will create Scotland’s largest privately owned wine merchant, with sales of around £75 million a year and clients including G1 Group, the Gleneagles Hotel and Saltire Taverns.
Four businessmen bought Milnathort-based Forth Wines from drinks distributor Matthew Clark in 2010 in a deal backed by Royal Bank of Scotland, Murray and Scottish Enterprise.
Two of the quartet – Alan Cramond and Ian Cumming – will join Inverarity Morton as finance director and commercial director respectively, while Ewen Cameron and George Thomson will leave the business.
Cumming told The Scotsman: “Over the past three years, we’ve returned Forth Wines to the break-even stage. It’s been good to have the private equity funding but, to take the company to the next level of growth, we needed to bring on board another player.”
Stephen Russell, managing director at Inverarity Morton and owner of a 25 per cent stake in the business, said that his company’s current premises in Glasgow were “bursting at the seams” and so he would grow the amount of business passing through Forth Wine’s depot.
“We will continue to run the businesses separately in the run-up to Christmas because this is the busiest time of year for our industry,” Rus-