Old Pulteney maker celebrates ‘robust’ year

Inver House Distillers, producer of the Old Pulteney Scotch whisky, delivered a “robust” performance in its latest financial year, but has predicted “challenging” times ahead for the industry.

Inver House Distillers’ managing director Graham Stevenson said the company has made “strategic investments” to battle “diverse challenges” in the market

In the year to December 2014, in which Inver House celebrated its 50^th anniversary, turnover increased 2.8% to £79.2 million, while profit grew 23% to £12.3m.

The company, a Scotch whisky subsidiary of International Beverage Holdings, experienced value and volume growth for its single malt and blended Scotch whiskies, as well as for its super-premium gin brand Caorunn.

Old Pulteney single malt Scotch whisky grew value sales by 8%, anCnoc by 12%, Speyburn by 28% and Balblair by 12%. Blended Scotch whisky Hankey Bannister saw value sales grow 4.5% and Caorunn gin’s revenue rose 18.5%.

The company also saw its whisky stock investment grow by 9% to just under £100m.

At the start of this year, it was revealed that Inver House was set to significantly increase its capacity after securing a £10m funding deal to build an additional 12 maturation warehouses.

The company said that due to “challenging” trading conditions in Russia, China and other emerging markets, it had focused on going its core brands in the UK, US, Germany, Poland and a select number of African markets.

“The year has also strengthened our determination to build our brands for the future, with strategic investments being made to meet the numerous and diverse challenges and uncertainties that the industry undoubtedly faces globally,” said Graham Stevenson, managing director of Inver House Distillers.

“There are challenging times to come but we remain confident about our strategy and the opportunities for our brands and our industry.”