WHISKY CASK BOTTLING

The Market

The UK Scotch whisky market, is currently worth over £5 billion globally with ‘rare’ whiskies alone seeing over 500% growth over the last decade.

Scotch whisky currently accounts for over 20% of the UK export value of Food & Drink and is currently sold to nearly 200 markets globally.  With over 800m litres of whisky being produced by the UK currently, a mere fraction (less than 5%) is allocated to single malt.

Growth in the sector has been driven by consumer desire for whisky, growing consistently and at a rapid rate. With over 500m drinkers of whiskies worldwide, whisky is out-selling spirits including Cognac and Tequila in their native countries, creating huge demand for stock worldwide.

With 90% of Scotch whisky exported internationally the requirement for stock has far exceeded supply and created a unique niche for high end and rare stock. The demand for Scotch export whisky has traditionally been in Western economies, however a rise in consumers in India and China has seen a dramatic increase in distribution and sales across these regions.

Since world changing events of the Covid-19 pandemic, as with most markets, the whisky production and supply-chain market was also affected.  Halt in production during 2020/21 created an imbalance of supply vs demand, driven by a 25% rise in consumption among whiskey drinkers and a huge rise in retail sales.

Investment into the whisky market from major alcohol brands such as Campari, Brown Forman and Diageo, who have seen significant sales increases across their whisky brands continues to grow.  High end whisky tasting, whisky auctions, distillery tours in Scotland rising in popularity all contribute to the growing need for more investment whisky production, something which is already happening.