RCS - Distil PLC - New Chair of Ardgowan Distillery Appointed

DistilAnnouncement

31/01/2022 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20220131:nRSe0529Aa&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 0529A  Distil PLC  31 January 2022

DISTIL PLC

DISTIL NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MIKE KEILLER, APPOINTED AS NEW CHAIR

OF ARDGOWAN DISTILLERY

 

Distil plc (AIM:DIS), owner of premium drinks brands RedLeg Spiced Rum,
Blackwoods Gin and vodka, TRØVE Botanical Vodka and Blavod Black Vodka, is
pleased to announce that Distil non-executive director, Mike Keiller, has been
appointed as the new chair of Distil-backed Ardgowan Distillery as it begins
development of its new flagship eco-friendly distillery.

 

Keiller will begin his role on February 1, when he takes over from Willie
Phillips who is standing down after four years at Ardgowan and nearly 50 years
in the trade. Mike will continue with his role on the board of Distil
following his appointment in June 2021 and will be integral in ensuring
ongoing synergies between the companies.

 

Distil announced an investment of up to £5 million into the Ardgowan
Distillery in July 2021. The investment is to include the build of a gin
distillery on site to create a home for Blackwoods Gin, development of which
is already underway, and access to Ardgowan's Master Whisky Maker, Max
Macfarlane, to create a separate Distil whisky brand yet to be revealed.

 

Mike Keiller said: "It is exciting to be joining the Ardgowan Distillery as
they seek to realise their vision of producing the highest quality malt whisky
at their ground-breaking new distillery.

 

"I'm relishing the opportunity to work with Martin on the company's corporate
strategy and to being part of a young, dynamic and fast-growing team of
passionate whisky pioneers. I look forward to nurturing the ongoing
partnership between Ardgowan and Distil as part of my new role."

 

Ardgowan Distillery CEO Martin McAdam said: "Mike is a fantastic guy and it's
great to welcome him as our new chair as we enter a very exciting phase of our
business. In the months ahead we will commence the build of our world-leading
carbon negative distillery with the goal of producing the very finest premium
malt whisky.

 

"Mike's industry experience in Scotland, the UK and internationally, and in
particular his skills in building a global brand, will prove crucial as our
production ramps up in the years to come."

 

Don Goulding, Executive Chairman at Distil plc, said: "We're delighted with
Ardgowan's decision to appoint Mike as new chair as they enter the next stage
of their development. Mike has extensive experience in the industry and has
proved highly valuable to us at Distil since his appointment to the board last
year. We welcome the news and look forward to further developing the
relationship between Distil and Ardgowan over the coming months and years."

 

For further information:

 

 Distil PLC
 Don Goulding, Executive Chairman   Tel: +44 203 283 4006

 Shaun Claydon, Finance Director

 SPARK Advisory Partners Limited

 (NOMAD)
 Neil Baldwin                       Tel: +44 203 368 3550

 Mark Brady

 Turner Pope Investments (TPI) Ltd

 (Broker)
 Andy Thacker                       Tel: +44 203 657 0050

 James Pope

 

About Distil

Distil Plc is quoted on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. It owns
drinks brands in a number of sectors of the alcoholic drinks market. These
include premium spiced rum, vodka, gin, vodka vanilla cream liqueur and are
called RedLeg Spiced Rum, Blackwoods Vintage Gin, Blackwoods Vodka, TRØVE
Botanical Vodka, Blavod Original Black Vodka, Diva Vodka and Jago's Vanilla
Cream Liqueur.

 

In July 2021, Distil Plc. entered into a convertible loan note agreement for
£5m which entitles Distil to convert to 14.28% of Ardgowan Distillery share
capital.

 

Roland Grain, who is a major shareholder in Distil and sits on the board of
directors, has also invested £7.2m pounds into the Ardgowan Distillery,
securing 51% of the shares in the company.

 

About Mike Keiller

Keiller is a Scottish chartered accountant whose early career began at Bell's
Scotch Whisky in Perth, followed by senior finance and corporate roles at
Guinness, United Distillers Europe and Diageo. Keiller joined Morrison Bowmore
Distillers as CEO in 2000 and over the next 14 years he helped transform the
business from a bulk whisky supplier into a profitable brand-led operation
with globally acclaimed spirits including Auchentoshan, Bowmore and Glen
Garioch.

 

After his retirement, he served as a non-executive director with The Last Drop
Distillers from 2016 until 2018.

 

About Ardgowan Distillery Limited

Ardgowan Distillery Company Limited has full planning permission for the
construction of an eco-friendly single malt whisky distillery, gin distillery
and visitor centre on the historic Ardgowan Estate near Inverkip, 30 miles
west of Glasgow.

 

Ardgowan Distillery Limited has invested in world-class technologies to put
sustainability at the heart of its plans and aims to be certified carbon
negative by 2024. The distillery will begin production in 2023 with capacity
to produce up to one million litres of premium whisky per year, and the
combined facilities will create up to 47 new local jobs.

 

The company is already bottling a range of award-winning blended malts under
its Clydebuilt label as well as a series of ultra-limited edition single
malts.

 

About Reach announcements

Reach is an investor communication service aimed at assisting listed and
unlisted (including AIM quoted) companies to distribute media only /
non-regulatory news releases such as marketing messages, corporate and product
information into the public domain. An RNS Regulatory announcement is required
to be notified under the AIM Rules for Companies.

 

This information is provided by Reach, the non-regulatory press release distribution service of RNS, part of the London Stock Exchange. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

Reach is a non-regulatory news service. By using this service an issuer is confirming that the information contained within this announcement is of a non-regulatory nature. Reach announcements are identified with an orange label and the word “Reach” in the source column of the News Explorer pages of London Stock Exchange’s website so that they are distinguished from the RNS UK regulatory service. Other vendors subscribing for Reach press releases may use a different method to distinguish Reach announcements from UK regulatory news.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  NRABKFBDCBKDKDB