Innis & Gunn’s latest export drive adds fizz and sparkle

INNIS & Gunn, the Edinburgh-based beer company that ages its brew in whisky barrels, is toasting a rise in overseas demand, with this year’s sales already beating the total for the whole of 2010.

The firm yesterday revealed its turnover rose 20 per cent in 2010 to £5.2 million – and its revenues for this year have already topped that figure with the key Christmas rush still to come.

Managing director Dougal Sharp, a former head brewer at the capital’s Caledonian Brewery, highlighted the growth in exports, which accounted for 75 per cent of sales in 2010, up from 65 per cent.

That figure has now reached 80 per cent in the year-to-date, with overseas sales growing faster than the firm’s predictions.

Sharp said: “Innis & Gunn has gone down an absolute storm in the States but this is just the tip of the iceberg.

“The craft beer segment over there represents 16 per cent of the overall beer category.

“The US has just surpassed one million bottle sales in only 12 months of trading – a real landmark for us.”

He added: “The business has made the most of the favourable trading conditions in export markets caused by the relative weakness of sterling.”

Sharp said he had also been “absolutely blown away” by the performance of its rum cask product, which has been recently introduced to Canada, Sweden and the US.

He attributed the surge in the firm’s turnover to a seven-figure investment package in 2010, which included setting up a sales and marketing company in the US and bringing its UK sales operations in house.

The company already makes the best-selling British beer in Canada and the number two imported ale in Sweden, according to industry data.

Sharp revealed he recently switched production of his beers from Greene King’s Belhaven brewery near Dunbar to Tennent’s Wellpark site in Glasgow to cope with the expansion plan.

But he said production had shifted “with Greene King’s blessing” and that the same yeasts and recipes were still being used to make the beers.

Innis & Gunn is being sold in a further 2,000 shops since July 2010 when Crawford Sinclair became UK sales director.

The company launched a draught version of its beer in the UK in January, with Sharp reporting that it had made “a huge impact on sales” and was now going on sale in Canada.

Earlier this year, the firm branched out into fruit beers, made using produce supplied by Brechin-based Ella Drinks.

The products are being sold under the business’ new “Melville’s” brand and have already received a permanent listing from grocery chain Tesco.

Due to its small size, Innis & Gunn files abbreviated accounts and Sharp continues to decline to reveal profit figures, although he said the firm had stayed in the black since 2004.

Innis & Gunn was founded in 2003 as a joint venture with William Grant & Sons Distillers, which wanted to make a beer to flavour the barrels used in its cask ale reserve whisky.

Sharp led a management buy-out in January 2008 and the firm is now family-owned.