It’s Europe vs. North America in this second Auchentoshan Switch, a bartender talent search presented by Auchentoshan® which allows two winning mixologists to literally “switch” continents for two weeks to work in the top bars in the world – one bar in London and one in New York City. The London host bar is ‘The [...]

Cutty Sark, acquired by Edrington just over three years ago, is set for a re-introduction in the UK, and the news coincides with the announcement of its first ever seaplane partnership with Loch Lomond Seaplanes. Cutty Sark which celebrated its 90th birthday on the 23rd March is one of the top 10 Scotch whisky brands [...]

The Lisini Pub Company is claiming damages of just under £1.8m from the Scottish Premier League, after they banned and fined the pub group, in 2006, for using a satellite that picked up fixtures on television signals meant for Poland. Although the pub group at the time agreed to desist, it has now taken punitive [...]

Maclay Group, the Scottish bar and pub operator, has announced its financial results for year end 29 September 2012. Revenue was steady at £10.4 million, operating profit of £718,312 was down from £745,937 recorded in 2011, while net debt was reduced from £11.5m to £9.7m. A property impairment charge of almost £680,000 plus an increase [...]

Premier Inns has announced plans to build four new hotels in Scotland. The company has earmarked sites in Glasgow, Stirling, Perth and St Andrews, and once operational, they will add 400 new rooms to its Scottish portfolio. Glasgow’s Pacific Quay is set for a six-floor, 180-bedroom Premier Inn hotel and restaurant on the banks of [...]

Duddingston Leisure has spent around £100k refurbishing the former News Room on Edinburgh’s Leith Street. It re-opened last month under new name, The Newsroom Bar & Eatery, and the GM is Harry Bennett. He said, “We have stepped up the food offering, with a strong emphasis on homemade and locally-sourced produce. He continued, “In terms [...]

C&C Group plc, the company behind Tennent’s Lager and Magners, has acquired a 50% equity stake in Wallaces of Ayr Limited (trading as Wallaces Express), Scotland’s largest independent wines and spirits wholesaler. Wallaces Express, which turned over £82.8m last year, will continue to be run independently. Kenny Neison, Group Chief Financial Officer of C&C Group, [...]

A planned 3p rise in beer duty has been scrapped in favour of a 1p cut in the price of a pint in this year’s budget. The chancellor also announced that the alcohol duty escalator, which adds inflation plus 2% to the price, is to be abolished for beer completely. However, the escalator will remain [...]

Malmaison and Hotel du Vin have been bought by KSL Capital an American venture capital company in a deal worth an estimated £180m. MWB Group Holdings, the hotels’ parent company, called in administrators from Deloitte last November. Following the announcement of the deal Malmaison revealed that it would be spending around £10m investing in its [...]

Ricky Agnew, Chairman and Managing Director of Marblehead, has revealed that Emma Wykes (nee Davies) has been promoted to the newly-created position of Commercial Director within the company. Additionally Heather Graham who has been supporting the business in a consultative capacity, will now be taking on the role of Business Development Director. Emma has been [...]