Glasgow distillery's investment to double production and honour local artists

The Glasgow Distillery is seeking to double production of its single malt Scotch after investing in two new whisky stills, which have been named in honour of two of the city’s great female artists.

The Glasgow Distillery's new stills are named after local artists Frances and Margaret MacDonald. Picture: contributed

The Hillington-based distiller has added a pair of stills to boost its production capabilities to approximately 440,000 litres a year – the equivalent of more than one million bottles of its 1770 whisky.

It has christened the new additions Margaret and Frances after the MacDonald sisters, who were prominent members of “The Glasgow Girls”, a group of pioneering female artists who influenced the city’s artistic style.

Co-founder and chief executive Liam Hughes said: “Margaret and Frances were so influential and prominent in their day, shaping the very city around us, and yet their legacy is not widely known.

“I love that many contemporaries marvelled at the sisters’ metalwork — a heavy, dirty process that women usually avoided. It seems incredibly fitting that we name our two new stills after sisters who specialised in hands-on, technical art practices such as metalwork and paved the way in traditionally male dominated practices.”

Hughes drew parallels between the MacDonald sisters and present-day women working in whisky production, a field which has traditionally been dominated by men.

He added: “At the moment, over half of our employees are female and under 30 years old. Thankfully, this is a trend which the spirits industry is starting to follow.”