The Glen Turner Company was established by French group La Martiniquaise, viewed as France’s second largest spirits Group, to oversee its Scotch whisky operations, although upon its incorporation in 1981 the group may not have realised just how big that operation would eventually become.
Nowadays Glen Turner also operates the Glen Moray single malt distillery in Elgin, the Starlaw grain distillery in Edinburgh and the production of the Sir Edward’s blend and Glen Turner single malt.
In its infancy the company managed the production and marketing of the Label 5 blend, and in 2004 built a maturation, blending and bottling plant in Bathgate which is over 28 hectares to service the brand. The brand has since gone on to be one of the biggest selling blended Scotch whiskies in the world.
Embracing further growth, Scotland’s first new green-field grain distillery for 40 years, Starlaw started in 2007 and the project was completed three years later. With a capacity of 25 million litres, the plant is fully integrated within the firm’s existing facility – and in 2016 Starlaw built a further three maturation warehouses on the premises, bringing its total tally up to 29. Many globally recognised spirits including whiskies, rums, ports and vodkas are found on site- including the much loved Glen Moray and recently acquired Cutty Sark.