Thursday, March 23, 2017

ARDGOWAN DISTILLERY LAUNCHES £17M FUNDING DRIVE

The owners of the new proposed Ardgowan Distillery in the Lowlands, have announced the launch of a £17m funding drive.

The Ardgowan Distillery, located 30 miles west of Glasgow, secured planning permission from Inverclyde Council earlier this month and is now seeking investors to bring their ambitious vision to life.

Ardgowan Distillery's first proposed release; Ciad Ghin 7 Year Old Single Malt

The project has raised over £500,000 seed capital to date, and the new distillers are now advancing their proposals to build a world-class lowland malt whisky distillery and visitor attraction on the historic Ardgowan Estate.

Construction is scheduled to start later this year, with plans to be operational in 2019. Ardgowan distillery owners are being advised by the Campbell Dallas Corporate Finance team, led by Harro Leusink.

Commenting on the news, Willie Phillips, Ardgowan Distillery Chairman, said: “Ardgowan Distillery is a terrific commercial proposition and Campbell Dallas is the right firm to assist us with this fundraising – they have a strong track record of advising on funding as well as an excellent understanding of the brewing and distilling sector. We are planning to build an outstanding distillery of significant scale to make a lowland single malt that will have a distinctive taste and flavour given its proximity to the sea. Our flagship will be a premium seven year old single malt, which I anticipate will establish Ardgowan as a single malt of great character.”

He went on to say: “We already have a senior management team in place with proven experience in project delivery, and have brought on board former Bruichladdich and Diageo veterans Gordon Wright and Michael Egan in commercial and product engineering advisory roles. Initial production will be around 200,000 litres of pure alcohol (LPA) and this will rise to over 800,000 LPA at full production. The distillery will be scalable with the option to expand production to 1.6m LPA with limited additional investment.”

The new distillery will resurrect the name of the Ardgowan Distillery, which was founded in 1896 and located in Baker Street, Greenock. After a few years of whisky production, the distillery was used to make grain spirt and industrial alcohol until it was destroyed in the May Blitz of 1941.

Posted by Steve Rush