Will supply meet demand? The Glenmorangie case.

Single malt whiskey has gone from a largely fledgling product in the 1960s to one with exponential growth in the past decade. The story behind the demand is fairly well understood:
"In China and other booming South East Asian countries younger consumers are taking to single malts to show they have arrived in life."  
"There is a need for such young consumers to show this much earlier than their predecessors." 
Industry watchers foresee a much faster growth in single malt consumption in line with the rapid growth in economy as well as rising incomes and aspirations of Indian consumers.
(Source: Import of single malt scotch whisky doubles in first half of 2010)

The challenge is obvious to anyone with a modicum of knowledge about the nature of distilling single malt and the dynamic of markets: global demand will outstrip supply as growing affluence in low to middle income entails a shift from domestic blended scotches and traditional international blends such as Johnnie Walker Red Label to more refined fare like Glenmorangie 10-year (recently SukasaStyle #ScotchSunday review).

Publicly listed companies understand this: French luxury retailer LVMH is the owner of The Glenmorangie Company and single malt assets are a strategic bet on future growth in current emerging markets and developing economies.

Below is a video of Dr. Bill (William) Lumsden, Head of Distilling and Whisky Creation,  answering questions from Glenmorangie's Facebook followers about the challenge of scaling up production. Dare I say it is of particular interest to engineers and single malt lovers.





Posted by Arijit Banik for SukasaStyle.

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