Tuesday, April 17, 2018

HOLYROOD DISTILLERY COMPLETES £5.8M FUNDING DRIVE

The team behind Edinburgh’s first single malt whisky distillery for 90 years, have announced that they have has successfully completed a £5.8m funding drive, to help fund the creation of the Holyrood Distillery.

The successful fundraising marks a pivotal milestone in the distillery’s development, following the City of Edinburgh Council’s decision in 2017 to approve development of the historic Engine Shed building and site on St Leonard’s Lane into a distillery and visitor centre.

Holyrood Distillery completes £5.8m funding drive

The funds will be used to renovate the 180-year old City-owned building, purchase and install equipment, create the visitor experience and provide working capital to cover the early costs of start-up and production, ultimately creating 35 new jobs in the capital.

A joint development by David Robertson, former Master Distiller for The Macallan, and Rob and Kelly Carpenter, founders of the Canadian branch of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, Holyrood Distillery will be Edinburgh’s first single malt whisky distillery since Glen Sciennes closed in the 1920s.

Under the guidance of Head Distiller, Jack Mayo, the distillery will produce a range of single malts, gins, liqueurs and other spirits. Holyrood’s progressive approach to playing with flavours, ingredients, distilling processes and maturation will set it apart. This ‘flavour first’ focus will be brought to life in a matter of months with prototype gins and liqueurs being made available for testing.

Commenting on the news, Rob Carpenter, Co-Founder of the Holyrood Distillery said: “With a lot of hard work and effort by the whole team, and working with the supportive and highly professional team at Scottish Investment Bank, we have reached our fundraising target, allowing us to bring the distillery to life. We can now move on to the fun part - building our new distillery and visitor centre and making delicious spirits. We want our customers to be our guides, helping us shape and build the spirits and flavours that they most enjoy. It’s a new collaborative approach to spirit production that we are all truly excited about and one which we believe offers something quite different from other distilleries.”

Construction on the new distillery and visitors centre, which will span 11,969 sq ft in size, will begin next month, with the aim of opening its doors to the public in spring 2019.

Posted by Steve Rush