Page 10 - Drambuie case study
P. 10
Malcolm and Duncan MacKinnon
From the mid 1970s for the next thirty years Drambuie sales
slid inexorably into decline. Nevertheless, the MacKinnon
brothers expanded Drambuie’s portfolio by enlarging their
extensive and expensive art collection, and a smaller glass
collection. Furthermore, in 1995, they purchased Hillwood
House and grounds off Edinburgh's Clermiston Road. It was
to be the company's new head office, to go with the other
head office, over three floors on St James's Street in
London's Mayfair.
The MacKinnon brothers, who each held 27% of the
company’s shares, were renowned for their extravagant and
reclusive life styles, finally awoke to their diminishing
revenue base when in the year to June 2001 the company
posted a £3.3 million loss on a group turnover of £150m. In
2001, Drambuie's group borrowings totalled £26m.
