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Glengoyne Distillery
renovations mark best summer season ever.
Glengoyne Distillery is celebrating the
launch of a brand new shop and visitor
centre upgrade on the back of its most
successful summer season ever.
The changes at Glengoyne, which include
a complete overhaul of the shop as well
as updates to the visitor centre, were
completed in time for the end of the
summer season which has so far seen a
massive 48,500 visitors through the
doors of ‘Scotland’s Most Beautiful
Distillery’ – a 6% rise on last year.
A total of £300k has been invested in
the visitor facilities upgrade in 2011
with further renovations planned for
2012. This comes in addition to the
£200k spent on renovating the Manager’s
House in 2007 for use as an events space
and more than £2.5 million spent on
operational upgrades to the distillery
such as new warehousing and stills.
New features inside the shop include a
new tasting area and the ‘Pour Your Own
Dram’ facility, where guests are given
the chance to fill and label their own
bottle direct from an exclusive single
cask, before logging it in the customs
book. The cask currently available is an
American Oak First Fill Sherry Hogshead
cask 60.7% ABV from June
2000, cask number 1016. It offers great
tropical fruit flavours and plenty of
hands-on whisky fun, priced at £75.00.
Glengoyne Brand Heritage Manager Stuart
Hendry said: "The old shop area was very
dark and didn’t make good use of space.
Our brief to retail design agency
Contagious was to create a brighter,
more organised shopping area which
showed off our award winning range but
without losing the distinct Glengoyne
character.
"I think we have hit the nail on the
head and we are extremely happy with the
outcome. Feedback from customers has
been great and we have seen an increase
in sales as a result."
The shop renovations have allowed for
the creation of a new bothy area where
groups can relax before and after tours.
Cosmetic upgrades have also been made to
the visitor centre enabling the
distillery to continue offering first
class conference and events facilities
to corporate and private clients.
A new series of Glengoyne films was also
commissioned from Republic Productions
to present a fun and informative look
into life at Glengoyne for use during
tours and events at the distillery and
throughout the world. The films range
from a short two minute promotional
film, tasting notes and cooking
demonstrations to in-depth films on
distillation and maturation, all
highlighting what makes Glengoyne
unique. The well known characters from
around the distillery including Head
Stillman Duncan McNicoll and Engineer &
Warehouseman Billy Edminston were chosen
to star in the film, rather than actors,
to help communicate the unique character
of Glengoyne.
Stuart Hendry commented on the film:
"The two aspects that contribute most to
the Glengoyne flavour are undoubtedly
our SLOW distillation (the slowest in
the industry) and our devotion to
sourcing the finest possible sherry
casks from Spain. In order to fully
understand where those flavours come
from we wanted to take consumers inside
the stills and on a journey to Jerez.
"The feedback from viewers is hugely
positive. They enjoy getting behind the
scenes and meeting the people. Visitors
take particular pleasure in speaking to
the stars as they meet them around the
distillery yard."
Glengoyne continues to push forward its
plans for new customer engagement and
will be exhibiting at this year’s BBC
Good Food Shows in both Glasgow and
Birmingham. The brand has invested in a
new exhibition stand will be occupying a
large prime spot at the popular food
shows in the SECC Glasgow 21-23 October
and NEC Birmingham 23-27 November. The
Glengoyne team will be offering visitors
the chance to sample the multi award
winning Glengoyne core range.
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