Clutha
SCOTCH SINGLE MALT WHISKIES > C
NEW GLASGOW DISTILLERY TO BE NAMED CLUTHA
August 2018
Douglas Laing & Co has revealed the name of its new Glasgow distillery after a planning application was submitted for the site earlier this month.
Clutha distillery will be the centrepiece for Glasgow’s £30m Pacific Quay development
Clutha distillery – meaning Clyde in Gaelic – will be situated at Glasgow’s Pacific Quay development.
The £10.7m building will also be used as the headquarters for the independent bottler’s operations, housing a bottling hall as well as visitor centre, whisky archive and bar/bistro.
The single malt produced at Clutha distillery will be a ‘specialist, high-end’ whisky with a heavy Sherry influence that will ‘differ from traditional Lowland styles’.
Pending planning permission, the new distillery, which was first announced in July 2017, is expected to open in autumn 2019.
Chris Leggat, CEO at Douglas Laing & Co, said the location on the south side of the River Clyde continues the Laing family’s roots as Glaswegian blenders and bottlers, having been founded in the city in 1948.
‘Douglas Laing has a long and proud association with Glasgow and the Clyde with the city at the heart of the company,’ he added.
‘It was important to us that the new distillery was located on the banks of the Clyde as it brings us back to where the company has its heart. After careful consideration the name was selected to reflect our proud heritage and the importance of the location.’
The site is expected to create 41 new jobs, almost trebling Douglas Laing & Co’s existing workforce.
The 7.5-acre, £30m Pacific Quay development will also include offices, restaurants, bars and cafés, with Clutha distillery at the heart of the site.
The distillery will become the fourth to operate in Glasgow, following the recent openings of Glasgow and Clydeside distilleries, and joining the well-established Strathclyde grain distillery.
FRED LAING, DOUGLAS LAING & CO.
2019
Whisky runs in the family for Douglas Laing & Co. chairman Fred Laing, who built his father’s blending business into a leading Scotch whisky bottler and – soon – Glasgow-based distiller.
There was never any doubt that Fred Laing would work with whisky. Even as a toddler he claims his future was mapped out. ‘There was an instance when we were on holiday in St Helier, and a lovely old lady stopped to ask, “what are you going to be when you grow up wee Freddie?” expecting me to say train driver or a cowboy, or a fighter pilot. Apparently I said: “Och, I’m going into the Scotch whisky industry”. I think the lady was quite taken aback.’
At that point Douglas Laing & Co. was in its infancy, having been founded by Fred Laing Snr a few years prior in 1948. Laing Jnr was born in 1950, and by the time he was 16 he was accompanying his father on business trips to Central and South America where his natural affinity for languages was put to the test.
Back then, the core business was structured around obtaining fillings from distilleries to create young, but well-made blends for sale in duty free and Asia Pacific, brands that included King of Scots and McGibbons.
Today the business is almost unrecognisable, with 25 head office staff and a renewed focus on single cask whiskies and a range of regional blended malts.
‘My dad wouldn’t recognise much of the business now,’ Fred Laing Jnr tells me over a pot of tea at the company’s current headquarters in Glasgow’s west end.
Laing and his trademark handlebar moustache have taken a rare Friday off from playing squash with his pal – ‘I’m good at squash, I am light on my feet’ – to talk me through the company’s past and future plans. We walk up the three-storey sandstone building’s steep staircase past family photos and offices crammed with desks. ‘It’s not ideal being split over so many floors,’ Fred says. ‘The new offices are very necessary as there are now 25 of us here. It’s not big enough
There’s something homely about the building, whose original features and comfy Scottish décor emanate warmth and character. If the walls could speak they’d tell of 70 years of business deals and children running up and down the halls.
But Douglas Laing has outgrown its original home, and plans are afoot for a new headquarters, distillery and bottling hall in Govan on the banks of the Clyde.
‘Funnily enough, if you put a zipwire across from Clydeside to our new distillery it will land right on our property,’ Laing grins. ‘Tim [Morrison, owner of Clydeside distillery] and I said we’ll build a bridge with a pulley rope and have afternoon tea in the middle of the Clyde.’ He’s joking, but there’s a cheeky glint in his eye that makes you wonder. Feasible or not, it would certainly take whisky tourism to a new level.
It would also be a direction Laing Snr would never have imagined when, fresh from serving in the RAF during World War II, he acquired the King of Scots brand from an American operation out of New York. The blended Scotch had existed since 1886 and had established a firm following, but in those post-war years there wasn’t a lot of spare whisky around for fillings.
‘Dad jumped in his car and visited as many different distilleries as he could to set up small filling programmes,’ Laing explains. ‘Whenever he had money spare he would put it into an extended filling programme across three or four different distilleries.
‘The nice thing is that even when the distilleries were taken over by the bigger companies, there were no written contracts at all – the handshakes were taken on as a deal by the new owners, which is nicely indicative of the way the whisky industry is. It’s still the case these days. They know we treat their whisky respectfully.
Despite maintaining a ‘cheap and cheerful image’ through the 1950s and ‘60s, Douglas Laing & Co. was approached by a new travel retailer, Duty Free Shoppers (DFS) to create a series of blended Scotch whiskies that would appeal to wealthy Far East travellers. The company’s first expression was King of Scots Rare Extra Old, a high malt blend averaging around six years of age, filled into a ‘glitzy’ French decanter complete with gold stopper and brass neck chain. ‘It really helped to establish us in duty free,’ Laing says. As DFS expanded through the Pacific Basin, so too did the King of Scots blend. ‘That then allowed us to step into the domestic markets.’
By this time Laing Jnr had taken on a ‘proper job’ with Whyte & Mackay, working under company owner Major Hartley Whyte as an apprentice. ‘Lovely wee man. He was shorter than me,’ Laing recalls. He soon moved on to work with White Horse Distillers where he’d find a way to spend time in the blending room with the sadly under-recognised Gardiner Ferrier. ‘I tried to spend as much time with him as possible because I hadn’t spent much time on the blending side yet.’ But Douglas Laing & Co. beckoned, and in 1972 he joined the family business alongside his father and brother, Stewart.
During the following years, as the rest of the Scotch industry experienced the devastating effects of oversupply, Douglas Laing prospered. ‘The industry at that stage was closing Port Ellen, Brora, Rosebank [all three are now set for revival], but our view of it, probably thanks to DFS, was coloured. These were quite exciting days for us.’ Asia, it seemed, could not get enough of aged blended Scotch filled into ‘fancy’ ceramic decanters. It was the success of McGibbons, by which time had exploded into bizarrely popular golf club-shaped ceramic decanters, which won Douglas Laing the Queen’s Award for Export in 1990.
Sadly it was an achievement Laing Snr did not get to celebrate with his sons. ‘My father passed away in 1984,’ Laing Jnr says, a lump in his throat. ‘I was very close to my dad. We’ve the same sense of humour; we’d laugh until tears ran down our faces. The day my father died was a really bad one because he was the boss of the company, my dad and probably my best friend next to my wife at that stage. It was a juggling act to keep it together.’
Big Peat leads the charge for Douglas Laing’s blended malts range
Things weren’t helped by a copyright lawsuit from Macdonald Greenlees, on behalf of the mighty Distillers Company Ltd (DCL), arriving just weeks after Laing Snr’s death. Douglas Laing’s King of Scots was at the time presented in an amber dumpy bottle, very similar to the Old Parr brand owned by DCL. ‘I had done some homework on it and our bottle was registered – its design went back to around 1888. Their bottle was first registered in 1904.’ Yet the DCL persisted. ‘We didn’t have enough money to fight them on that patch. That was where I learnt for the first time that might is right, and that we couldn’t win.’
The Laing brothers continued regardless, diversifying away from a focus on blends into single cask bottlings with the launch of Old Malt Cask in 1999, followed later by the Old Particular range.
In 2009, and somewhat ahead of the curve, Douglas Laing branched into blended malts with the launch of Big Peat, featuring a caricature Islay fisherman on the label and containing all-Islay whiskies with a proportion from the closed Port Ellen distillery. ‘Big Peat started a trend for us,’ he says. ‘There are now quite a few off-the-wall packs out there for different whiskies, but, modestly, we were probably the first to take that slightly disparaging tone to the way the brand was portrayed. It struck a chord with a younger, slightly more rebellious age group who didn’t have the armchair and fireside view of whisky.’
Big Peat celebrates its 10th anniversary this year as Douglas Laing’s biggest-selling brand. It’s a landmark moment for the whisky that led the concept for the Remarkable Regional Malts, a now six-strong series of blended malts from Scotland’s main whisky-producing regions that also includes Scallywag from Speyside, Timorous Beastie from the Highlands, The Epicurean from the Lowlands, The Gauldrons from Campbeltown and Rock Island (formerly known as Rock Oyster) from the Islands.
Probably the most defining moment in Douglas Laing’s history however was the emotional split of 2013, when the brothers divided the company stock and went their separate ways. Stewart took Old Malt Cask and set up Hunter Laing & Co., which now operates Ardnahoe distillery on Islay. Fred meanwhile kept the Douglas Laing name, along with Big Peat, and was joined in the business by his daughter Cara as director of whisky, and her husband Chris Leggat, now CEO, both of whom had been working at Morrison Bowmore.
‘Cara and Chris are the general thrust of the company,’ Laing smiles. ‘We’ve got a great team. The expertise that Cara brings, the savvy that Chris is bringing more and more to the equation is very heartening. They’ve got a couple of kids, and certainly I can see the eventuality of one of them coming into the company.’
Having just celebrated its 70th anniversary, Douglas Laing is now looking to the future with the establishment of its new HQ and Clutha distillery, construction of which is expected to begin later this year. Despite having its own supply of whisky Laing is adamant the company’s focus will remain on single cask bottlings and the blended malts. Though as the Remarkable Malts portfolio grows, he doesn’t rule out the possibility of building further distilleries around Scotland.
‘We do plan to have another couple of original distilleries, though not on an immediate basis. The whisky industry is a long-term thing; we believe with the brands we’ve got we can justify going into different regions to build small, bespoke distilleries.
‘For now we’ve got some fun ideas for the first distillery [in Glasgow]. Because the volume of this distillery is quite small, we’ll focus on Cara’s description of “urban gritty”. We will not be going the herbal, grassy, triple-distilled Lowland route. We’ll be looking for something more robust.’
With Laing now approaching 70 himself and taking less of a hands-on role at the company – apparently allowing more time to play squash with his buddies – the future of Douglas Laing & Co. now falls into the hands of the third generation. And quite possibly their children.
‘My father died two years after my daughter was born, so he only knew a little bit of my Cara,’ Laing says. ‘I remember he had a big Airedale named Rowdy that she used to ride around on, much to his delight. He would be thrilled that his wee granddaughter will be looking after his company.’
K
ESTIMATED INVESTMENT
£10.7m ($13.7m)
EXPECTED COMPLETION
2019Expand
Douglas Laing & Co announced plans to open a new distillery and bottling complex in Glasgow, UK, in August 2018.
The distillery will be named Clutha (meaning Clyde in Gaelic), after the River Clyde. It is being developed with an estimated investment of £10.7m ($13.7m) and is expected to be opened in 2019.
The new facility will enable Douglas Laing to establish itself as a distiller and is expected to generate 41 jobs.
Clutha distillery location
The distillery and bottling complex will be located in the Pacific Quay site owned by Scottish Enterprise and is being developed by Drum Property Group.
The Pacific Quay development is a 7.5-acre waterfront site located on the banks of the River Clyde at Pacific Drive in Glasgow.
Drum Property Group is developing the site as a mixed-use project with an estimated investment of £67m ($85.2m). It will comprise luxury residences, offices, restaurants and bars, including the Clutha distillery.
Clutha distillery and bottling complex details
The new facility will include a corporate headquarters, a visitors centre, a laboratory and archive, along with a bar and bistro. The facility will also house a bottling facility and a warehouse.
Douglas Laing will venture into in-house distilling with the new facility, which will facilitate the production process from start to finish. The company will work closely with a skilled distiller having more than 40 years of experience to perform distilling at the facility.
“The new facility will include a corporate headquarters, a visitors centre, a laboratory and archive, along with a bar and bistro.”
The plant will have an initial production capacity of more than 100,000l of alcohol a year. It will incorporate various methods for reducing packaging and wastage, efficient energy usage, carbon dioxide reduction, and decreased costs.
Water required for the facility will be supplied from Loch Katrine, the source of Glasgow’s water supply, while 300t of barley will be sourced from Scottish farms for the production of whisky.
Details of products manufactured at Clutha distillery
Douglas Laing produces a range of artisan Scotch whiskies and will introduce a series of fine Scotch whiskies through the new facility.
The first whisky to be created at the Clutha distillery will be named Clutha whisky. It will be a high-end, single malt with a heavy influence of Sherry and will be matured in ex-Sherry casks. Unlike traditional Lowland styles, the malt will offer a thick, mouth-coating whisky and be crafted without any colouring or chill-filtration.
Douglas Laing whisky range also includes the XOP, an aged and premium whisky series, and Old Particular, a single cask malts and single cask single grains series. The company’s small batch, single cask series is called Provenance.
Other popular brands include The Epicurean, Timorous Beastie, Scallywag, Rock Oyster, Big Peat, and The King of Scots.
Financing for Clutha distillery
The Clutha distillery and bottling complex project will receive £855,000 in funding under the Scottish Government’s Food Processing Marketing and Co-operation (FPMC) scheme. The funds will be used towards the capital cost of the distillery equipment and construction of the plant.
The FPMC scheme supports businesses to establish new as well as existing facilities for the processing of agricultural produce.
Marketing commentary on Douglas Laing & Co.
Douglas Laing & Co. was founded in 1948 by Fred Douglas Laing and is currently being headed by the third generation of the Douglas Laing family.
The company produces and supplies Scotch whisky with a focus on artisan, small batch and single-cask bottlings. It currently has businesses across the US, China, Germany, France, Japan, Taiwan, and the UK.
The Clutha distillery project will enable Douglas Laing to focus on improving its global export trade. It will also help in growing the company’s business in the existing markets of North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, China, and the domestic UK market