Distillery founder Ian Stirling says the Chancellor’s rise in excise duty “in a passing moment” has seen a year of work to improve the company’s performance “evaporate”.
Mr Stirling, co-CEO of Muckle Brig, which is behind the Port Leith vertical distillery, has written to Rachel Reeves stating that her decision has “very real and painful consequences for our business”.
He says that “in a passing moment in your speech you increased duty rates in line with inflation. In that breath, a year of work we have undertaken to optimise our team, our dry goods, our efficiency, and our distribution, evaporated.”
He says that to remain competitive the firm’s only option is to swallow this increased cost.
“We don’t understand the government’s strategy,” he says, adding that “we need a rational explanation.”
Commenting on social media about his letter, he says: “The latest duty increase has really got my goat. As Graeme Littlejohn at the Scotch Whisky Association has clearly illustrated, OBR data demonstrates that it does not deliver increased revenues to HMRC. So why on earth do they do it?!
“I spent the weekend simmering, worked through my frustration, and somehow ended up offering the Chancellor a bottle of whisky at the end of my letter.”
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