Lerwick Distillery Set to Become Shetland’s First Distillery
After consulting with Business Gateway, the owners of Shetland’s first ever whisky distillery are due to open later this year, 2024. The exact opening date for Lerwick Distillery is yet to be announced.
It has been almost a decade since Martin Watt, Caroline MacIntyre, and Calum Miller came up with the idea for the distillery. In 2022, they discovered the site and began planning the build
As a master distiller, Ian Millar has decades of experience in the whisky industry, while Martin and Calum have backgrounds in chartered accountancy and architecture respectively. Caroline is the sales director, and Ian Millar is the master distiller. Caroline has worked in hospitality and sales for many years,
Notably, all whisky expressions in Scotland must mature for at least three years and one day. However, the creation of Haad Still will cover operating costs during the first few years of the distillery’s operation.
The Creation of Lerwick Distillery in Shetland
In the future. Lerwick Distillery will also offer whisky tourism, with tourists being a key target market. Such elaborate plans require the expertise of an established consultant. Business Gateway provided one-to-one support to the team on distilling, profiling, and accessing vital funding.
An important start-up grant from the Shetland Islands Council helped the company purchase photography for social media use. The images and social media directly contributed to raising capital for the distillery’s opening.
In their original funding target, Martin and Callum hoped to raise £1m, but they raised four times as much and managed to secure premises four times larger than they originally intended.
Martin Watt, Director of Lerwick Distillery said: “The support that we received from Business Gateway has been excellent. Diana was able to point out things that we had missed in our business plan, and gave us access to great contacts to help us develop.
“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. We truly couldn’t have done this without Business Gateway.”
Diana Abernethy, Business Gateway adviser said: “Shetland is the last area of the UK without a distillery, so to be able to help Martin, Caroline and Calum reach the goal of being the first distillery on the island has been fantastic. It’s an exciting brand and journey they’re embarking on and will give such a boost to tourism in the area and the local economy.”