Highland distillery cuts production jobs amid ‘decline in the whisky industry’

A Highland whisky distillery has made a ‘small number of staff redundant’ during its silent season.

Glenglassaugh distillery, whose Sandend has been named ‘Whisky of the Year 2023’, has laid off production staff including Tijay Salhotra. Mr Salhotra posted about the news, writing: “And just like that my time at Glenglassaugh and Brown Forman has come to an end. Due to the decline in the whisky industry and a change in the corporations activities, Glenglassaugh is halting production for a while making my role redundant. It's not closing for good and it should restart towards the end of the year.

“It's been an amazing 3 years with the company, beginning from my time at Glendronach in the visitor centre and the last 2 years at the helm of Glenglassaugh. I want to say a big thank you to everyone who watched and engaged with my stuff here on IG, it means the world that I could showcase what I do and possibly put a smile on someone's face at the same time... It really means a lot.”

One of Scotland's few truly coastal distilleries, Glenglassaugh is located on the Moray Firth coast just minutes from the beautiful Sandend Bay. It was established in 1874 by businessman James Moir before becoming part of Highland Distillers. The distillery closed in 1907 before reopening in 1960 but closed again in 1986. The BenRiach company reopened it in 2013.

In 2017 Brown Forman announced that it had reached definitive agreement to purchase The BenRiach Distillery Company Limited for approximately £285 million, this deal included buying The GlenDronach, BenRiach, and Glenglassaugh.

A spokesperson for Brown-Forman said: "Glenglassaugh Distillery is not shutting down. We operate a shared production model with Benriach, which will involve periods of production alongside occasional silent seasons, as has been the case traditionally. This allows us to optimize resources and expertise across both distilleries.

Highland whisky distillery make staff redundant amid fears of closure | Canva

"This shared production model, and our ongoing demand planning process, resulted in a small number of redundancies. We deeply value the contributions of those impacted and are committed to providing support to them throughout this process.

"Our commitment to crafting exceptional whiskies remains as strong as ever, and we are grateful for the continued support and enthusiasm of our customers and markets worldwide."

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