Just remember who broke this story, on Tuesday 25th June 2024, before anyone else steals it!

It’s been 9 years since Bladnoch was taken over by Australian entrepreneur, David Prior, after it was liquidated in 2014. Prior teamed up with Gavin Hewitt to form the new Bladnoch Distillery Limited on 9th December 2014 (when it was originally called Pure Scott Limited, originally intended to be the vehicle to create the Pure Scott blended whisky for the Australian market, owned by the Australian parent company, Pure Scott Pty Limited, registered in February 2014, ACN number 168 059 130). Hewitt came on board as a director on 25th June 2015, although later resigned on 14th September 2017 – only to get back on board on 1st January 2024.

A quick skim around Companies House in the UK, and a gander at their last published accounts (20th December 2023, TOTAL EXEMPTION FULL ACCOUNTS is the interesting one) reveals a few items of concern. To make it easier, we have it for DOWNLOAD HERE.

Page 2 highlights include almost £33 million in short term debt (debt that has to be repaid within one year), another £14 million due after 1 year. There’s £1.5 million in a bank loan at a horrifying 7.49%, a “directors loan” of £11.7 million, a £12.1 million ABL facility (which has actually been increased to £16.5 million) and another £12.6 million from PFF (Prior Family Foundation) which rakes in a nice 7.49% per year earner, PLUS forex provisions.

£47 million, assuming it’s all around the 7.49% mark, is £3.5 million a year down the drain before Team Bladnoch even gets out of bed.

Here’s where the problems are:

On page 10, they have £15.2 million in stocks (raw materials, work in progress and finished goods) and £6.6 million in debtors. The stocks likely have a gross profit of £3 million and the debtors likely have gross profit of £1.5 million. Factor in the circa 40 headcount even at a modest average salary of £20K per year per head, and that’s £800K, plus basic running costs of the facility – there’s just not enough money left over to even repay the interest on their debt mountain – let alone to invest in casks, grains, yeast, and production costs to fill barrels. Now it’s logical to understand why Bladnoch Slashes Production. They don’t have enough pennies to produce anything!

There’s a whiff in the air…….that whiff of smoke, that usually hides a few mirrors.

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