Spirit and wine wholesaler Inverarity Morton (IM) is to close its regional depot in Milnathort with all operations moving to its Glasgow Head Office and Distribution Centre at Thornliebank.
The Milnathort depot was originally the home of Forth Wines which IM bought over in October 2013 and IM says that over £500,000 is now needed to upgrade the site, a site that Forth Wines had otherwise planned to vacate and sell for residential redevelopment.
IM’s managing director, Stephen Russell commenting on the closure commented, “We looked at all the avenues open to us and the most feasible solution was to close Milnathort. At the time of the acquisition, having a second depot was invaluable because we were bursting at the seams in our old HQ. Now that we have moved, we are more than able to absorb the entire Milnathort operation within our existing infrastructure so our customers will see little or no difference to the way their accounts are managed.”
The company moved its headquarters to larger premises in Glasgow last September, investing £3m in the refurbishment of the 100,000sq ft site, for IM’s 140 staff, and the installation of leading-edge logistics and back-office systems.
Said Mr Russell, “We conducted a full business audit in order to identify ways to cut costs without compromising our service. Moving our entire business under one roof made complete commercial sense and will allow us to operate far more effectively and efficiently.”
The company will now engage in a consultation process with affected staff, hoping to minimise redundancies among the Milnathort workforce. The management team is looking at measures, including relocation packages, for the twenty-nine employees based at the site in telesales, admin, warehousing and marketing.
The closure will be phased between March and May, the 75,000sq ft site eventually being put up for sale.
Inverarity Morton employs over 200 people and supplies over 3,000 on-trade outlets in Scotland. The firm is a recognised centre of excellence for wine and spirits training and picked up Best Wine and Spirits Wholesaler of the Year at the Scottish Bar & Pub Awards 2015.