FDBusiness.com

Independent Scotch whisky and spirits distiller William Grant & Sons has increased operating profit by 8.8% to £103.6m on turnover up 40.1% to £838.3m for its 2009 financial year. Pre-tax profit dropped from £129m to £114m but this was chiefly due to one-off gains in the previous year resulting from the restructuring of the Maxxium spirits distribution joint venture.

William Grant & Sons’ Scotch whisky brands include Glenfiddich, The Balvenie and Grant’s, while its non-Scotch brands include Sailor Jerry, Hendrick’s Gin and the newly acquired Tullamore Dew Irish whiskey.

“2009 was a good year for the company, thanks to the continued investment behind our core brands, new distribution agreements and our improved route to market,” says Stella David, chief executive of William Grant. “Thanks to our continued success, we have recently been able to acquire Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey, allowing us to enter the dynamic Irish whiskey category and build another truly iconic brand.”

Tullamore Dew was acquired as part of William Grant’s Eur300m acquisition of the spirits and liqueurs business of Irish and UK cider maker C&C Group in July. The Scottish group subsequently sold the liqueurs business to Campari of Italy for Eur128m.

With sales of 600,000 cases Tullamore Dew is the world’s second largest Irish whiskey brand and provides William Grant with the opportunity to accelerate growth in non-Scotch business.