The Sound of Success
Despite the coronavirus outbreak, Jason Caddy spent a very entertaining and interesting few hours in the company of Gillian Kirkland, whisky judge and owner of the multi-award-winning business, The Piper Whisky Bar in Glasgow’s George Square.
Not content with a running a successful Whisky Bar, the eternally busy and motivated Gillian Kirkland is looking to start bottling her very own malt as part of a brand new venture. There’s nothing bottled up about Gillian, though – her bubbly personality fuels her enthusiasm and focus, all of which shone through when I met her on a Monday morning at The Piper – an Iona Pub Partnership premises.
Six years into running her business independently following her husband’s death from a brain tumour, Gillian has made several changes to the operation.
She explained, “I turned the pub to a Whisky Bar four years ago and the malt count currently stands at 200. It was doing fine as it was but I felt it didn’t have a strong enough identity, so I thought ‘I know I’ll
turn it into a whisky bar.’ With absolutely no experience/knowledge of whisky, I set about learning all I could about Whisky and I now love and understand it. I’ve never looked back. I am all guns blazing…it’s a real labour of love”
Gillian is of course deeply concerned about being proactive in implementing measures and action plans to ensure business security and staff retention during coronavirus. She said, “April to September is usually when the tourists start to come back and this is when we sell our own branded hats, umbrellas, branded bags, and whisky glassware. I am hoping that my business and others in the trade will not be hit too hard by the virus situation. This is such an important time for all our businesses.”
Gillian is very good at accentuating the positive and The Piper, she is always keen to stress, is more than just a Whisky Bar. It boasts a function suite overlooking George Square and live entertainment every day from Glasgow’s emerging music scene. Queues out the door on a Saturday night
are a common sight.
As for her newest foray into bottling her very own malt, she said, “I have already bought a cask from Speyside which I have aged in a sherry cask and then bottled. I am tasting seven other casks tomorrow and I am also sourcing a Chateauneuf-du- Pape barrel in which to finish another
whisky in. Each bottling will be approximately 300 and they will all be completely different. And before you ask, no, I have not yet selected a name – that is still a work in progress. I will get the branding just
right.”
Gillian’s favourite tipple is a Glenfarclas 25 its lovely sherry and smooth tones, hinting at the fact that this may well influence her own choice of branding in the future.
Since its transformation, The Piper has continued to go from strength to strength, which Gillian puts down to a successful formula that is certainly working for her and her hardworking team. She said, “Why are we successful? The offering doesn’t change. Good food, good entertainment, good service seven days a week. We don’t show football. We don’t need to.”
“I also host a monthly whisky club in my function suite. Although it started small three years ago, it now boasts 50 members who I count as my friends.”
Gillian is immensely gracious about her staff and understands how hard it is to find, train and hold on to good ones. “People continually move on in this industry. At first, I used to take it personally and
overthink it. That’s until I said to myself ‘no Gillian that is just the turnover in the licensed trade.’ That said, Colin Douglas has been at The Piper for 11 years so he has seen some comings and goings. Now he’s the manager and I honestly couldn’t do without him or any of my staff. I value them all,” she said.
And when it comes to recruitment Gillian is die-hard old school. She admires a motivated person and will always accept them on to her team knowing that they are a great asset to any business.
She explained, “I now have a lot of admiration for CV carriers that waltz right in with their CVs and ask for the manager. I didn’t used to. But now I feel that it shows they are hungry for work rather than just emailing me. That’s got to be admired.”
One topic that did cause Gillian’s brow to furrow is the new Deposit Return Scheme which once implemented by the Scottish government in July 2022 after being postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, will mean that licensees will have to pay an extra 20p on plastic and glass bottles and aluminium cans which will only be redeemed once all empties have been safely gathered in and returned to the System Administrator, the independent body that will run it.
Gillian’s thoughts? “The prospect of a Deposit Return Scheme is most worrying for me. It is not the extra cost I am concerned about – it is the extra manpower for collecting and sorting plus the extra storage space required. We go through hundreds of bottles on a busy weekend.
That’s why I am looking at alternatives – for example, Britvic has come up with a marvellous dispense system that is great for mixers because of the number of empty bottles it will cut down on. I think people will adjust though as they did with the plastic straws being discontinued.”
Another area of focus for Gillian is pensions – but at the same time, she is a realist. She explained, “They are costly but necessary. It is just another cost centre for my business that I didn’t plan for five years ago. But I do now and will always support my staff in this matter.”
Gillian credits her success to her work ethic, vision and previous experience in retail. “I was a manager at ASDA for 13 years and because of the training I received there, I can apply it to what I do today. It
was there that I learned about profit and loss, people management, and the ability to adapt to a fluid situation – all completely invaluable skills when running your own business.”
What does Gillian do when she’s not concentrating on all of the above? Family focussed, she’s an experienced cook, frequent traveller and now whisky enthusiast, often attending festivals, dinners and judging panels. She is also aware of the rising influence of women in the trade – something she is extremely keen to encourage. Gillian also enjoys time with her partner, their children, family, and friends. She wouldn’t give very much else away, but one thing I did walk away safe in the knowledge of is that the future looks bright for both Gillian and The Piper Whisky Bar.
