Ian Stirling: Budget ‘evaporated’ a year of work
Muckle Brig co-founder Ian Stirling has spoken out on the “very real and painful consequences” the autumn Budget will have on his business.
Stirling co-founded Muckle Brig with Paddy Fletcher in 2014. The Edinburgh-based company operates two distilleries in Scotland’s capital: Port of Leith, which produces whisky, and Lind & Lime, which produces gin.
The Port of Leith site is said to be the UK’s first vertical whisky distillery, and it hoped to welcome 160,000 visitors this year.
On his LinkedIn page, Stirling wrote that the latest increase on alcohol duty in the UK has “really got my goat”.
He said: “As Graeme Littlejohn at the Scotch Whisky Association has clearly illustrated, OBR [Office of Budget Responsibility] data demonstrates that it does not deliver increased revenues to HMRC. So why on earth do they do it?”
In last week’s Budget announcement (26 November), it was confirmed alcohol duty will stay linked to the Retail Price Index (RPI) of 3.66%.
It will increase again in February 2026.
Punished without explanation
In a letter penned to UK chancellor Rachel Reeves, Stirling highlighted the “very real and painful consequences” the Budget will have on his business.
The letter was separated into two parts of feedback. The first read: “In a passing moment in your speech, you increased duty rates in line with inflation. In a breath, a year of work we have undertaken to optimise our team, our dry goods, our efficiency and our distribution evaporated.
“There is no scope for us to increase prices to our customer base if we are to remain competitive, and our only option is to swallow this increased cost.”
“We don’t understand the government’s strategy here. The OBR’s data demonstrates that raising duty delivers diminished tax revenue. Are you trying to lower consumption by increasing the retail price of a bottle? We need a rational explanation for this because we’re currently being punished without any explanation of the charge.”
The second part then shared some positivity, with Stirling praising the expansion of the Enterprise Investment Scheme. He wrote: “You extended the Enterprise Investment Scheme, to help a mid-sized business like ours raise further investment in the UK and scale-up our growth plans. This was a great decision and we are pleased that the opportunity has been taken to broaden this highly effective scheme, without which, our business would never have existed in the first place.”
Stirling signed off the letter by offering to send Reeves a bottle of Port of Leith’s single grain Table Whisky, should she “ever like to rekindle the tradition of enjoying a dram whilst delivering you speech to the House of Commons”.
Autumn’s Budget was described as ‘a death by a thousand cuts’ by Miles Beale of the WSTA, while other trade bodies and prominent industry figures also shared their disappointment.
Karl Mason, UK Spirits Alliance (UKSA) spokesperson and director of Masons of Yorkshire, called the budget a “sad day” for distillers.
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