Bruichladdich Bucks Malt Forecasts

[John]

Mark Reynier, the former London wine merchant who bought Bruichladdich back to life in 2001, has grown profits more than 40% at the Islay distillery as he plans to introduce an organic malt later this year.

Latest figures show sales rose by 15% to £7.98m from £6.8m in 2006 as profits climbed 43% to £1.7m. Reynier says the growth comes at a time when industry analysts expect global 2008 single malt sales to be flat, even though they are up 2.6% in the UK according to HM Revenue & Customs.

Speaking from Alsace, where he is hosting a series of masterclasses over the Easter weekend, Reynier said that despite the economic downturn it was still a good time to be a small Scotch whisky producer.

He said: "It's not exactly a buzzing time. The only Customs figures out so far show the UK with a surprise 2% increase in single malt, but the forecast, according to Alan Gray at Sutherlands stockbrokers, is for a meaningful loss in single malt whisky sales.

"For big brands any slight change in the economy makes a big difference. But for little people like us with premium brands we know our place. We have hardly started, we are not in many countries, we don't do Duty Free so we are not affected by those obvious places of downturn. It really is a question at this time of small being beautiful."

Reynier last year told Scotland on Sunday that he has received four offers for the Islay distiller in the past 18 months but it would have to be an "exceptional" deal for the shareholders to accept. Since he acquired the company in 2001 he has grown production from zero to 35,000 cases. The next step is to grow it from 35,000 to 60,000 and then 150,000, which would push turnover past the £10m mark.

Reynier said: "This summer will see the launch of our first organic Bruichladdich. We are now distilling half of our production from organically grown barley, so ultimately Bruichladdich will be a fully organic brand. We want to be able to tell the consumer the farmer who grew the barley and the field it was produced on to achieve complete traceability."

John

Source: Scotland on Sunday