Newton Stewart’s Crafty Distillery harbours expansion hopes

At the top of a twisting driveway, the Crafty Distillery enjoys a glorious view of the Galloway landscape.

Situated just outside Newton Stewart, it is best known for its gin production but has branched out more recently into vodka and whisky.

Its products are already stocked in a number of major supermarkets and hundreds of independent retailers but the company now has plans to expand.

Founder and managing director Graham Taylor said it could allow them to increase production, hire more staff and boost turnover signficantly.

The story of the distillery goes back to 2014 when Graham was working abroad but was keen to move back to the area where he grew up and start a business.

“I was working in the design industry, but I had an interest in spirits,” he explained.

“I guess my dad was a whisky fan and both me and my brother got into drinking whisky over the years.”

He spotted a distillery for sale in the area but could not afford to buy it so, instead, ended up finding a site where they could build their own.

They started building in 2016 and completed it early the following year.

And when it came to developing their first gin, it was inspired by their surroundings.

“First and foremost, we are a Galloway distillery,” said Graham.

“You’ve got Cairnsmore of Fleet in front of you, you look up to the Merrick, you’ve got the history and we’ve got this absolute bounty of botanicals.

“So when we went to develop our first product, which was the Hills and Harbour gin we wanted to capture some of that.”

So from the hills they took noble fir – and seaweed from the coastline – to give it its distinctive flavour.

Only recently have they branched out into whisky and they are working with a farmer in nearby Port William to look at growing local barley.

Now the company, with a staff of 12, has gone as far as it can with the current facilities and has plans to expand.

“We’ve really maxed out the production in here,” Graham explained.

At present they produce “only” 10,000 pure litres a year for their whisky but the new facilities could allow them to go up to 100,000 with the potential to reach 200,000.

It would also let them double white spirit production as well.

“We’ve grown roughly between kind of 10% and 20% every year for the last five years,” he said.

“We’ve done it in almost, you could say, in quite a traditional fashion.

“We only invest and we only grow when we can afford to, because we don’t work with banks in the sense that we don’t have investors, we don’t have bank loans at the moment.”

They have just launched their first crowd funder to look to get more local investment because Graham said they were at a point where they really hoped to “scale this up” and be able to take on more staff.

“Last year we had £1.1m turnover and almost in its entirety that has come from white spirit,” he said.

“So what we’re looking to do is double that revenue for the business, so we’re looking to get that to £2.2m in the next few years.

“That means producing, roughly, about 100,000 bottles a year.”

In the process, they hope to “help put Galloway on the map” and be able to take on more staff.

“The main story I guess here from my perspective is that we’re at that point where we’ve had a really good solid seven or eight years of growth,” said Graham.

“We really want to double down and cement our commitment to the region, the existing staff and the future potential.

“To do that, we really need to try and expand in operations.”

Dumfries and Galloway Council has just approved the expansion of the site with a new production and visitor facility.

Graham said the best part of running a business in Galloway was also one of its most challenging aspects.

“You’re only two hours from Glasgow – in some ways we are actually easy to get to, but, in a lot of people’s minds, we’re quite remote,” he said.

“We really need more people to come and enjoy it.

“This is an absolutely magical place, and there’s tons of opportunities here – you just have to find them.”