Dave and Goliath
Dave Broom speculate on the fate of the smaller whisky brands faced with today's globalised marketplace
The whisky industry is always rife with rumour, most of which is to be disbelieved. After a few drams, two and two often makes 25. Rival
firms are in regular contact due to blending requirements, and just because two people lunch together, it doesnât mean an evil plan is being hatched. That said, the talk in Islay's bars this May was of how Bunnahabhain was up for grabs. I talked to Edrington, but they don't comment on
rumours. Fair enough.
The trouble was, the story didn't want to go away. All of a sudden William Grant's suave head Patrick Thomas mentioned that the firm had approached Edrington in the past, but negotiations had fallen through. Surely the distillery is either on the market or, at least, Edrington is
open to offers. Even though the cat was out of the bag, the firm's preferred line was which cat? Which bag?
So, let's assume what everyone believes to be true: that the Bunnahabhain sale, with Black Bottle attached, is on. Why would Edrington sell? Only last year the distillery was told to start operating at full-tilt. Why do you enter into negotiations to sell one of your biggest plants if youâre
racking up production?
By coincidence Edrington's annual report had arrived just before the Grant's angle had emerged. I took a proper look. This was what Ian Good says in its introduction: "The board believes the future of the Group is closely aligned to the success of our key brands ... For that reason
we are concentrating our resources behind four key brands: T.....
To read the rest of this article you can buy this issue
or subscribe to Whisky Magazine to have every issue delivered direct to your door.
You can unlock and read this entire article with 1 of your community tokens by clicking here.
By Dave Broom
Section : A dram with Dave Broom
Page number : 8
