John Dewar

Sector In Profile: Low Carbon

John Dewar is the only whisky company owned by the Bacardi group and as such is in competition internally for both resources and investment.

Sue Riches, Scottish Enterprise Account Manager explains: “The challenge was how could we help the company become a Centre of Excellence when faced with a number of difficult issues, raise their profile within the Group, and encourage more investment in the Scottish operation.”

Iain Lochhead, Operations Director, John Dewar, adds: “We wanted to focus on our main operation; bottling whisky, and try to raise the profile of whisky within the group. But we also wanted to encourage the group to invest in our development.”

SOLUTION

The first project to be undertaken was embedding Lean Operations into John Dewar’s overarching strategy, looking at bottling lines and changeover times. Progress was also made with training staff to think and work more efficiently, ultimately altering the entire company culture.

“We were able to work very closely with the management team and understand how each part of the business affects the whole,” says Sue. “The HR team has been a great business partner in the change, leading initiatives such as developing high-performance, cross-function work teams, and implementing leadership development at several levels.

“Training has been across the board,” adds Iain, “including development and delivery of a Team Leader People Management Programme. I also took part in a Leadership and Innovation Learning Journey to the US where I was very impressed by the calibre of the companies we visited. It was an excellent learning experience – being able to compare and contrast what our company was doing.”

“Leadership development was absolutely key,” Sue states, “particularly in altering the relationship with Bacardi. Progress was made in developing leadership strength and capabilities, encouraging a culture of involvement and continuous improvement across the business.”

Assistance was also provided to help with the feasibility stage of changing the company’s waste management strategy. “We wanted to show the company in a better environmental light,” explains Iain, “and were put in touch, through Sue, with SE environmental experts. We now have a strategy in place across our distilleries and a contract will be signed shortly to take this forward.”

Improvement is ongoing, and SE has set up contacts with other companies to allow John Dewar to gain insight into, for example, how logistics could be better managed.
“Our approach,” says Sue, “is to work with key people across the business to identify the types of support which best fit their goals – a mutual relationship.”

IMPACT

John Dewar’s standing within the Bacardi group has improved, with the parent company demonstrating a far greater understanding of the whisky industry. As Sue points out: “the senior directors are now much more embedded within the group.”

John Dewar’s has now received significant investment from its parent company to progress its new strategy, partly influenced by SE’s willingness to support the business.

“We have produced more in the last year than we ever have,” says Iain. “We are more stable, and our staff are all very interested and engaged in what we are doing as, of course, is Bacardi. We have identified savings and improved efficiencies, making a huge difference to the business.”

Visit the Scottish Enterprise Knowledge Series website for further information.