The future of Scotch whisky in changing times

The Scotsman

The future of Scotch whisky in changing times  Hosted by Scottish family business McLaren Packaging, in association with The Scotsman

Transcript

00:00Hello, I'm Rosy McGallagher, Head of Business and Commercial Content at The Scotsman.

00:03We're at Birnbegal Castle on Dalmeny Estate in Edinburgh on a lovely sunny day.

00:08We're hosting an event with McLaren Packaging, discussing the future of Scotch whisky and changing times.

00:13We've had two panel sessions on the future of Scotch and on sustainability.

00:17Please have such a large audience from the whisky industry and its supply chain

00:20to hear what was discussed today and create a legacy for the future.

00:23So we've organised today to bring together a wide range of our customers and people associated with the industry

00:31to share views, ideas, because we're in some really challenging times just now.

00:37There's a lot of economic uncertainty, there's a lot of pressure and focus and sustainability

00:40and we felt it was important to enable and bring everybody together to have a discussion

00:45and hopefully today has been able to take away some new ideas and thought perspectives back to their business.

00:50So I think for me, getting together for these kind of discussions is really useful just to meet other people from the industry.

00:57So instead of reading up on things, you can actually chat face to face with people

01:01and understand what changes they're making in their distillery, what challenges they're facing

01:06and building in the economic backdrop into some of the sustainability stuff that we're working on

01:14and really getting in behind the kind of headlines that we put forward as distilleries to try and understand,

01:20OK, this is what you're doing, but what's the real background, how much work went into that?

01:24Because we can work really diligently in our own sites and understand exactly what we're doing,

01:30but you need to sometimes step back and see it from an industry perspective

01:34and try and understand how what you're doing contributes to the industry.

01:39I don't know, it depends. Sometimes they're important, sometimes they're not important.

01:45Sometimes they have an opportunity for people to talk about sustainability and having talked about it,

01:49they think that's enough.

01:51You know, it's a bit like when you say to your partner, I am going to change,

01:55and you think you have, but you actually care on doing the same stuff.

01:58So I think it depends on whether you get people actually gain inspiration and change or not,

02:04and I think that you'll only find that out after the event.

02:06So you have to have the events anyway.

02:08I think it also depends on who is convening it.

02:11So I think the good thing about this event is that McLaren packaging are actually walking the walk

02:15when it comes to that kind of stuff.

02:16They're really trying and thinking about it, and they also admit, which I like, that they're not perfect.

02:21So I think that convening power is important, and it comes from a place of authenticity,

02:27and they still say there's a journey to go on.

02:29So I think this one's probably more important because they can demonstrate the art of the possible

02:33whilst saying there's still further work to do.

02:36A lot of these events offer people to sit around and go, wouldn't it be nice if?

02:39And then they go, yes, and then they think they've done the job, and they go back to that.

02:42Normal jobs, and don't do anything different.

02:45As Peter Drucker once said, culture each strategy for breakfast.

02:48My key takeaway from today is to talk more and share ideas,

02:53because in the room there's lots of good insight, ideas being picked up,

02:56and certainly I've got a good few topics to think about over the weekend

03:01and take back to next week at McLaren packaging.

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