Achi news desk-
But equally, he said, his elevation “felt like the natural step”.
Ms Laing was officially appointed to the role at the family-owned whiskey blending and bottling company in early February. As the granddaughter of Douglas Laing, who founded the company in 1948, it could be argued that there was a sense of destiny to her promotion. But she insists it was by no means inevitable.
“It felt like the natural step,” Ms Laing told The Herald Business headquarters. “It wasn’t part of the plan at all. I had never intended to take on the role of managing director. But the opportunity came where [in] in my personal life and in my business life it felt [like] the right time.
“It felt like, personally I could take on the bigger role and importantly from the point of view of the Douglas Laing team, I didn’t want to bring in a new MD who had no understanding of the business, of the people in the business , of the business. many shades of life in Douglas Laing.”
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Ms Laing is quick to point out that there is much to learn, highlighting areas such as operations and finance, but equally she has plenty of experience to lean on. She joined the whiskey industry in 2006 after graduating with a degree in marketing, and in this discipline she has spent most of her career so far.
After starting with Whyte & Mackay as Jura single malt brand manager, he went on to become Bowmore and Glen Garioch single malt marketing manager at Morrison Bowmore Distillers.
She eventually returned “home” to Douglas Laing in 2013 as head of brand marketing under her father, Fred Laing, the then managing director.
Ms Laing admits she misses out on marketing, which remains her “passion”, but relishes the opportunity to take a “much wider view” of the business. It underlines the importance of the strong board supporting her in Douglas Laing, which includes Fred as chairman and the experienced Mick Ord (operations director) and Scott MacDonald (sales director). Their support and guidance is proving invaluable as the company and the Scotch whiskey industry in general negotiate difficult conditions in international markets.
Ms Laing said the current trading environment was as difficult as she had seen it during her career, with much of it characterized by “extraordinary” growth.
“That has definitely been done [the role] tougher, because suddenly the growth we’ve been enjoying has definitely slowed down a bit and a lot of the international markets are very challenging,” Ms Laing said.
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“That has certainly been another learning curve, but overall what gave me a lot of confidence about stepping into the MD role was that, in practice, not many people know Douglas Laing that well with me I understand the history of Douglas Laing very well and have a good knowledge and real passion for the whiskey industry. Those are the two areas that really stand me in good stead.
“But in terms of the operations and finance function within the business, those are probably the two key areas that I have to become a lot more involved in and get my head around more than I did in my previous role.”
There is currently plenty to be excited about at Douglas Laing, which exports its whiskey to around 65 markets. The company, which celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2023, has just released the first ever single malt from the Strathearn Distillery in Perthshire, which it acquired in 2019. It was a breakthrough moment for a company that built its reputation on the the art of blending and bottling whiskey from distilleries around Scotland.
Strathearn malt is bottled from 32 selected casks, a “seamless” blend of ex-bourbon, virgin and ex-sherry oak casks. Some of the barrels were inherited when the distillery was bought five years ago, while others were distilled in the period since then.
The single malt, which retails for around £85 a bottle, is described as a “deep, rich whisky” and a “bold but soothing dram”. Ms Laing said: “This moment has been a long time coming and one we are extremely proud to share with the world.”
Douglas Laing had not been in the market to buy a distillery when the opportunity arose to buy Strathearn. In fact, he was working on plans to build his own whiskey making facility, Clutha, on the banks of the Clyde in Glasgow.
Under the Clutha project, Douglas Laing envisioned bringing its head office, bottling and cask storage warehouses together with a working distillery on one site. However, a decision was made to put the plans on hold before Covid got stuck in early 2020. Soon after, Strathearn came onto his radar.
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“Just before Covid, we realized we had a call to make on basically where to allocate our time and budget and we decided to focus on our bottling warehouse facility. [just off the M8 motorway not far from Braehead], ultimately because we are tired of using external parties,” said Ms Laing. “We really wanted to get our hands around our own product and be masters of our own destiny.
“We wanted to make sure we bottled our own products and bottled them the way we wanted, so we focused all our energy and indeed most of our budget on bottling, warehousing first class, [and] set up office facilities, which we have done.
“We are now very well established and starting to take on some third party bottling within our facility – so, not only making our own product but also a bottling partner for other whiskey companies.”
Returning to Strathearn, Ms Laing said: “That wasn’t really part of the plan. It was an opportunity that arose – there was a gut feeling, which is often how we operate as a business, that we would regret not jumping on.”
