Shetland’s first whisky distillery set to open

Shetland is due to get its first ever whisky distillery later this year.

Lerwick Distillery is yet to announce the exact opening date, but after finding a site in 2022, planning an building work has been ongoing.

The concept began more than a decade ago between friends Martin Watt and Calum Miller - who have backgrounds in chartered accountancy and architecture - who have since brought on co-founder Caroline MacIntyre and Ian Millar, as sales director and master distiller, respectively.

MacIntyre has extensive experience in hospitality and sales, while Miller has worked in the whisky industry for more than 50 years, including almost 25 years at William Grant & Sons.

Scottish law dictates that a spirit cannot legally be called a whisky until it has matured for at least three years and one day, so the distillery plans to bottle a ‘new make’ spirit to cover operational costs for the first few years.

This product will be called Haad Still - a traditional Shetland phrase for hold on - encouraging people to wait for the whisky to mature.

The distillery also plans to offer tours to customers, with the island's tourist trade being a particular target.

The team has accessed business advice from Business Gateway after a recommendation from Shetland Islands Council, partnering with adviser Diana Abernethy, who helped with avenues to access funding.

The business accessed a start-up grant from Shetland Islands Council, which contributed to photography costs for use on social media. This directly helped raise share capital towards the opening of the distillery.

The founders' initial funding target was to raise £1m, but they far exceeded this, and have been able to secure premises that are four times the original size they had planned.

Martin Watt, director of Lerwick Distillery, said: “If it hadn’t been for the funding Business Gateway signposted us to, we would not have raised enough share capital to be able to expand the business so quickly.

“The £4,000 funding resulted in an extra £682,000 share capital investment that really wasn't expected.”

Abernethy added: “Shetland is the last area of the UK without a distillery, so to be able to help Martin and Callum reach the goal of being the first distillery on the island has been fantastic.”

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