Wester Distillery turnover tops £1 million

Scottish rum producer Wester Distillery surpassed £1 million (US$1.3m) in turnover for the first time in 2021 – a 400% increase on the previous year.

The Glasgow-based distiller grew sales from £200,000 (US$263,220) to £1m, which it attributed partly on direct-to-consumer sales because of the pandemic.

Wester Distillery is looking to build on this further in 2022, after building a customer base of 35,000 consumers in the UK last year alone.

Zander Macgregor, co-founder, said: “Since setting up the business in 2017 we’ve seen steady growth; but over the last year demand for our products has soared and we believe this is due to not only the high quality of product we produce, but also our ability as a small business to adapt to changes in customer tastes and respond to the changing marketplace.

“Over the past year we’ve focused on building our direct-to-consumer sales and with sales in the first two months of the year [2022] showing us as already being on track to hit our growth targets for this year, this is something we hope to build even further.

“We’re also engaging with potential trade customers to allow us to bring our in-demand products to consumers whether they are at home or in bars or restaurants. Our team has also grown to allow us to achieve further growth, with two permanent members of staff joining the business in our bottling and order fulfilment teams.

“This year we have plans to bring even more limited edition batches to our customers, allowing them the opportunity to try new flavour profiles and discover their perfect rum match.”

Figures cited by Wester Distillery from the Wine & Spirit Trade Association suggest an extra 1.3m bottles of rum were sold in the UK between April and June 2020, compared with 2019.

In other rum news, One-Eyed Rebel Spiced Rum producer The Spirit Of Manchester Distillery has forecast export sales will grow from 10% in 2021 to 30% in 2022.

The March 2022 edition of The Spirits Business magazine, out now, takes an in-depth look at emerging rum regions, and how they are bringing a point of difference to the rum category.