THE Glasgow Distillery Company has secured a £5.5m asset-based lending facility from Barclays to support its international growth plans.
The funding will provide working capital to invest in increasing whisky stocks and continuing The Glasgow Distillery Company’s international expansion.
While Europe is currently its biggest export market, the company has seen strong growth in Asia this year. New retail contracts have been secured in Russia with distribution deals currently being developed in Belgium and Luxembourg.
The Glasgow Distillery Company has remained operational throughout the current pandemic and pivoted its business to add hand sanitiser to production schedules and maximise e-commerce opportunities, growing online direct-to-consumer sales by 500%.
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
Why? Free to subscribe, no paywall, daily business news digest.
The team has also created a virtual tasting experience, investing in a fully equipped tasting room which will be used to take the distillery tour to international buyers, tackling the challenge of travel restrictions.
Ian McDougall, Glasgow Distillery Company co-founder and finance director, said: “This investment will help finance our strategy to respond to increasing worldwide demand for our products. We have ambitious plans and, with the support of Barclays, our customers, suppliers and employees we are confident of our future success.”
The Barclays team was led by Stuart McAleese, Relationship Director, and Mike Kempton-Smith, Asset Based Lending.
In addition, Barclays has assumed full day to day banking for the distillery which re-opened in 2014 becoming the first independent single malt whisky distillery in Glasgow for over 100 years.
Founders Liam Hughes, Mike Hayward and Ian McDougall revived The Glasgow Distillery Company which originally opened in 1770 before closing in the early 20th century. The business now employs 24 staff.
