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Artisanal Spirits plc – owner of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS), the largest whisky club – officially opened its Masterton Bond bottling plant at Uddingston yesterday. As well as the SMWS, the Group also owns J.G.Thomson & Co, producer of a range of small batch blended malt whiskies, grain whiskies, rum and gin.
The £2.5m plant has been fully operational since November last year after agreeing a 10-year lease on the facility in October 2021 and is the company’s first ever multi-purpose supply chain facility, marking what it calls a ‘real step change’ in its supply chain performance.
Andrew Dane, CEO of Artisanal Spirts Company plc, which owns both the SMWS and J.G. Thomson, said, “I’m delighted to officially open Masterton Bond today. It seems poignant that, as we celebrate 40 years of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, we look ahead to an exciting new era of providing more whisky than ever before to our membership worldwide.
“Masterton Bond is in line with our long-term business plan, utilising funds raised from our IPO in 2021, to evolve our cask storage and bottling requirements. This excellent new facility reduces our dependence on third party bottlers for production, storage, fulfilment and distribution – our sincere thanks to all our third party suppliers who have worked with us and helped us to get to this point. This improvement to our capacity for bottling marks a real milestone for our supply chain efficiency and performance. We are forecasting an improvement to margin as well as a higher volume of bottle production.”
“Furthermore, Masterton Bond is already substantially reducing road miles involved in the manufacture and supply of the Group’s products, helping us lower our carbon footprint and tread more lightly on the planet.”
Gary McGrath, Operations Manager at Masterton Bond, said: “This is an important day to us all and the team involved in getting the facility ready. Our testing and optimisation of our production in the run up to opening today has been successful. To date, we have already bottled over 70,000 bottles on the line and we will soon be making shipments to all our key markets internationally including China, the United States, Australia, Germany, France and Japan, from here in Uddingston.”
For four decades, the Scotch Malt Whisky Society has specialised in limited edition, single cask whisky for its members around the world. This year the Society, which is now in more than 30 countries worldwide, will release several special bottlings to celebrate its 40th anniversary, alongside various commemorative events and collaborations.
As the SMW looks forward to celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, they are planning a range of activities and innovative creations over the coming months such as a chilli-tinged spirit, collaborations with a ‘thrill engineer’ and a top-secret world-record attempt. The Society will also launch a new podcast series featuring maverick and game-changing characters from around the world.
Picture: Andrew Dane (right), CEO, Artisanal Spirits Company plc, at the launch of Masterton Bond with Gary McGrath, Operations Manager. Credit: Artisanal Spirits Company plc / Peter Sandground
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