Islay’s Bruichladdich in finals of Ernst and Young 2011 Entrepreneur of the Year

‘As Jim said to me this morning’, says Bruichladdich Distillery’s Managing Director Mark Reynier, ‘referring to Bruichladdich’s multiple changes of corporate ownership over the last sixty years, Bruichladdich was like an unloved child, always being turned away: you’re a charming wee girl, but there’s no room for you here. But now she has found the right home, that love and respect.’

Bruichladdich has been included in the Scottish finals of Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award for 2011.

What makes it particularly heartwarming for the distillery to be considered for this award is that 2011 is its 10th anniversary year in its current and community focused ownership model.

Being a finalist in these awards formally recognises the great risk, effort, dedication and achievement from the entire Bruichladdich team in resurrecting this wonderful distillery from the scrapheap of history

This Sunday, 22nd May 2011, the team celebrate the reopening of the distillery, a decade after an extraordinary May day in 2001 -  a Spring day that changed Bruichladdich lives for ever.

The distillery had been shut down in 1994 as ‘surplus to requirements’. Today the company sells 40,000 cases of Islay single malt around the world and has just posted pre-tax profits of £900,000 for the year ending 2010.

The winner of the competition will be announced at Gleneagles on 23rd June 2011. Winning would occasion some party and Bruichladdich are supremely the masters of invention.

There’s a light and mischievous heart to Bruichladdich, an eye for fun and opportunity and all aimed at supporting the growth of this important serious whisky and this important Islay employer.

Being a finalist alone, however, is a stellar recognition in an award of this kind and at this level.

The awards are sponsored by Credit Suisse, endorsed by the CBI, Department of  Business, Innovation & Skills, London Stock Exchange, Prince’s Trust and Institute of Directors.