A DISTILLERY and social enterprise in Dingwall is appealing for new investors in a bid to do more good in the local community.
The GlenWyvis Distillery was established in 2015 as a community benefit society, which operates on a not-for-profit basis and donates money to various cultural, educational and entrepreneurial projects in the area.
Since raising £2.5 million in its first crowdfunder the distillery has gone on to produce both whisky and gin.
In the past two years the distillery has distributed £30,000 between local primary schools as well as the Dingwall Museum, the Dingwall Gaelic Choir, the Dingwall Community Council and many other groups.
One of the distillery’s directors, Dr Jock Ramsay, told The National about the uniqueness of the business model.
“It’s one member, one vote,” he said.
“So, the people who invest are co-owners of the distillery, with the board being run by members of the society on a voluntary basis.
“It’s part of the mission statement that the company is run for the benefit of the community.
“Of course, we’re aiming to make a profit so that we can return money to our investors but our main objective is to actually support the communities of Dingwall and the surrounding area of Easter Ross.”
Ramsay is now aiming to raise a further £2m of investment to build a new bonded warehouse as well as a visitor experience centre.
“We’ve run out of storage space in our current warehouse,” he said.
“Which means we really need to build a new bonded warehouse, which will probably be off-site but close to Dingwall and the distillery.
“We’ve also had issues with water supply and electricity. We get our water from a borehole and last year’s dry summer meant we struggled for a week or two with low supply, meaning we couldn’t produce our products.
“We’re also wanting to fund a visitor experience centre in Dingwall. We haven’t got any visitor access to the distillery at the moment. The road access means the council won’t give us permission.
“But a visitor centre could help us make more money as well as attract more tourists to Dingwall.”
The society already has 3600 members from all over the world and has won awards for its gin.
But Ramsay wants more people to get involved and help fund more projects in the area by raising a further £2m.
“This really is a unique opportunity,” he said.
“There’s not an open market for being a co-owner of a distillery as so many of these projects are tied up with multinationals or venture capitalists who take money out of Scotland.
“GlenWyvis provides a way for individuals to invest in a whisky distillery that’s genuinely going to benefit Scotland and the local community”.
Details on how to get involved in GlenWyvis's third share offer are available on the company's website.
