Brechin’s Glencadam Distillery helped whisky maker Angus Dundee boost profits by 15% last year, newly published accounts have shown.
Company directors said the family firm had traded satisfactorily given the continuing economic strife during the year to the end of June, with its malt distilleries in Angus and at Tomintoul on Speyside praised.
Turnover rose 7% to just over £59m during the period, while pre-tax profits also climbed to just short of £20m.
Angus Dundee also highlighted the reopening of a mothballed whisky bottling plant in Coatbridge, which helped boost growth efforts. More than 30 jobs were created by plant’s return to full production in early 2012.
“The malt distilleries continued to make a positive contribution to the financial performance of the company, and the bottling plant at Coatbridge is being successfully integrated into the cased goods operation,” the directors report, posted at Companies House alongside annual accounts, said.
“The company ended the year in a strong position with improved working capital.”
It said it would continue to invest in further development at Glencadam, which the company bought in 2003, and Tomintoul, a 2000 acquisition, and would work to grow markets overseas and at home.
Exports now include The Angus, a blended Scotch whisky produced for the Chinese market following a collaboration between businessman Yuet Yu, Angus Dundee and Angus Council, alongside The Dundee and Parkers brands.
Maturing whisky stocks were valued at more than £73m, while directors also said they believe a £4.7m balance sheet valuation for land and buildings “considerably” underestimated the worth of the company’s property assets.
The group, owned by the Hillman family, employed an average of 102 people during the financial year to June, split equally between production and sales and management roles.
Glencadam Distillery opened in 1825, just one year after distilling on a large scale was legalised. Little has changed since despite a three-year shutdown between 2000 and 2003 with the award-winning Glencadam single malt still produced using spring water from the Unthank Hills.
The company also produces a range of blends and own-label products, and supplies in bulk for local bottling. It is responsible for around 4% of the world’s Scotch whisky, with products sent to 70 countries worldwide.
business@thecourier.co.uk
ENDS