THE BRAND CHAMPION Iain Henderson is Manager at Laphroaig and retires in October. He received the inaugural ‘Lifetime Achievement’ award from Whisky Magazine’s Whisky Academy. LFW: Congratulations on your Lifetime Achievement Award. Thanks very much, it came as a complete surprise and a wee bit overwhelming. I am particularly honoured to share the award with Turnbull Hutton, whom I’ve known for a long time and is one of the great characters in the industry. He’s a protector of things traditional. Turnbull is one of several people who have influenced me. Neil Cochrane–the chemist, Ronnie Martin—former head of DCL—and Stewart McBain—head of Chivas up in the north; these are some of the people who gave me opportunities and made a big impression on me; people you learn from, who never talked down to you. LFW: How did you begin in whisky? I wanted to be an engine driver but I started as a sailor, in the Merchant Navy on passenger ships—life was one long party for the engineer. The next thirty years have been pure enjoyment too. I came into the whisky industry by accident. I was never a beer drinker—always a spirit drinker. I travelled the world with a fascination for spirits and I got to try them all. I discovered that Scotch was one of the finest spirits in the world, but I had to leave the country to find this out! My first experience of Laphroaig was on ship in a storm between Ceylon and Australia; the Steward came through and said ‘You’ve drunk all the Dewar’s—all we have left is this Leapfrog stuff.’ We said ‘Christ! Where did you get this?’ Apparently it was part payment for some deal that Stewards were always pulling off. We persevered because we knew it was different. By the time we reached Australia we had finished all six bottles and thought—this is our drink! We trawled all round the Australian coast looking for more—plenty of Glenfiddich of course but no Leapfrog. In a remote ‘cowboy’ town we found a pub with two bottles of Laphroaig on the top shelf and a barman from Fort William who’d thought he’d give the Ozzies a real drink—but they couldn’t cope with it so up it went out of harm’s way. We couldn’t believe it! The barman cheered up a lot too! Whenever I got home on leave, Carole, my wife, kept putting the situations column under my nose. She thought I should be at home. I was invited to consider a job at Bunnahabhain distillery in charge of the maintenance department, supervising an electrician, joiner, painter etc, and a hands-on engineering job. Highland Distillers gave us a weekend on Islay; the weather was perfect, the sea was blue, we were flown in and met by a car—luxury! Carole said ‘I’d quite like this’ and we did. We stayed for two years of heaven. It was the boom days of the industry, working hard (filling the whisky loch). I was happy—I was still beside the sea! LFW: A soft spot, perhaps? I love the sea and I feel better living beside it. It has a calming effect. Then, time to move. Carole had an ageing grandmother on the mainland and resented the stretch of water in-between. I got a job at Glenlivet building the dark grains plant. It’s now closed but was very efficient at making a very natural cattle feed from distillery waste. I’m a nosey person and was always looking into the distillery next door or at what was going on generally. During this time the automated Allt a Bhainne and Braes of Glenlivet distilleries were being built and I was keen to be part of that team. In those days you could muck in with each other’s jobs. I knew nothing about whisky but would join in when sampling the new spirit. You soon learn stuff such as doing this with the foreshots gives you that effect. It all stood me in good stead later, especially when I went to Bladnoch. The head of Chivas, Stewart McBain, gave me the choice: stay in engineering or go into production and I thought production had much more kudos and glamour. The first distillery of my own was Strathisla which had one pair of coal-fired stills and a pair of steam—the two spirits were completely different! Direct firing produced much more body to the spirit. The makes of the two pairs was combined before filling and that’s what made Strathisla. We were trying to automate the stills with hydrometers and stuff; long before Glenlivet and Glen Grant were automated. Plus the lab for all Chivas was at Strathisla so I learned a huge amount from there too. Then I got the ultimate manager’s job, The Glenlivet. The Glenlivet is actually four distilleries in one—four distinct pairs of stills, I don’t know of another quite so separate. We used to nose the makes individually before they were pumped together. During my time at Glenlivet we put in the fourth pair of stills and over five years converted from direct firing to indirect (steam) heating. It does change the spirit and it’s necessary to adjust the cut-offs to retain the character and flavour. Again good experience. Safety restrictions demanded no smoking in the stillhouse (despite the massive gas burners!) When insurers came from America and saw huge cylinders of gas they were horrified—a bomb that could have blown the distillery away! So I saw to the decommissioning of the tanks which took six months. LFW: Ever the engineer. Not just, I was there for the building of the visitor centre and the numbers went from 5,000 to 50,000. I had a good grounding in visitors and how to treat people; if the product is not properly marketed it does not sell. I thought the two went hand in hand, a novel idea to some production types but I like to think that I can combine the two. I’m basically a production person—I like the cut and thrust of that—but I still enjoy the marketing aspect as well; it was a whole new world. LFW: Changing times... Chivas was changing; you weren’t allowed to fiddle and tinker with things anymore, or to try and improve things generally. I found it less of a challenge and after 13 years I got fidgety again. I got an attractive offer to go to Bladnoch distillery in the south west, which Bells was then resurrecting. The place was broken down, so I got my jacket off and set about getting things running again. Bells was a unique company; they gave me delusions of grandeur—I thought I owned the place!—Just because of the way they operated. Head office told us what they wanted in production and approved a budget and that was it, we were left to it. My wife and I put everything into that place and I’d like to think that I put Bladnoch back on its feet and improved it just by good practice. The workforce built the visitor centre. They were all tradesmen and a bunch of guys who never fell out with each other. They even came back at night in their own time—they were amazing! LFW: We appreciated the results. In the first year of opening the visitor centre we had 17,500 visitors! Carole had four guides doing tour after tour and the money through the shop was phenomenal! I have a soft spot for Bladnoch, because we resurrected it and made it a tourist attraction. LFW: Why didn’t you stay there? One evening with the distillery running smoothly I got a ’phone call: ‘How would you like to go back to Islay?’ I had just ten minutes to make my mind up so I asked Carole if she would like to go back. ‘Just say yes!’ She said. So I rang back and reported that she said it’s okay! UD did try to get me to stay, but they couldn’t guarantee the future of Bladnoch and I had done plenty of time in Speyside. I had decided I was going to back to Islay, to Laphroaig. UD closed and sold Bladnoch a few years later. ‘Too far from Elgin’ they said—absolute nonsense! I went back and the place had been torn apart! A distillery keeper is only a custodian and must pass it on in a better condition, but Bladnoch was just vandalised industrially. LFW: Have you considered returning? Raymond Armstrong, the new owner, is doing a magnificent job but I can’t understand how the old owners can restrict his production. I like to run distilleries in a proper fashion but with those output constraints it can only be a hobby. When I got to Laphroaig I realised it was dying! As a single malt it was one of the first onto the market after Glenfiddich, but by the early ’90s when malt sales were booming, sales of Laphroaig were declining fast. Previous owners thought that whisky sold itself, which it did in the post war years. LFW: A shock to you. A crisis meeting was held here and we concluded the options were to sell the brand—cheaply because it wasn’t doing well—or build it up. The Marketing Director was persuaded to appoint the first brand manager for Laphroaig and we launched the ‘love-it or hate-it (no half measures)’ campaign and established the Friends of Laphroaig. Allied Domeq is not a malt whisky company—Ballantine’s and Teacher’s are their brands of Scotch—but this little unit makes a tidy profit. The Friends was approved and supported by Jeremy Weatherhead because we were different. Since he left six years ago I’ve had 13 brand managers! Happily we’ve watched the revival of the brand in line with the numbers of Friends of Laphroaig (now 185,000) and are in the position that we can’t meet demand. We don’t sell in Spain for example, one of the biggest markets—where would we get the stock? At one point we were supplying the British Ambassador in Madrid direct by post from Islay! I’m off to Sweden soon and we have written to several thousand Friends to come and meet me there. I’ll do a wee presentation and tasting, and hopefully I’ll get to meet many of these people. LFW: A close relationship. Last year we sent 97,000 Christmas cards out and got masses back! Have you seen 7,500 Christmas cards in one place? A Friend of Laphroaig gets two things: a regular newsletter from me which is the link between customers and the distillery (I used to do one for the company and Jeremy asked me to broaden it) and they get a square foot of Islay with a certificate. They can come and visit their plot (or check it on the internet)—it’s a conversation piece. LFW: It’s certainly different. Last year a Swedish whisky club came and found their plots and planted a wee Swedish flag on each one; eight paper flags out on the moss. That afternoon a German club came; they didn’t have flags—but by 5 o’clock they did! Another 11 flags, made from coloured paper and sticky tape! Then Finland, Australia and many others—by the end of the week it was like the League of Nations! That’s immensely rewarding. When we came here tourists were not entertained. Carole was in charge of visitors initially. As she had done it at Bladnoch she didn’t question it and set about it for nothing. When my boss saw what she was doing he put her on the payroll. She now claims she’s by Royal Appointment after doing lunch for Prince Charles! LFW: This is ‘Relationship marketing’ done well. No Islay whisky sells more than we do—over 100,000 cases each year. I do a presentation for business people in Europe that I call ‘The decline and rise of Laphroaig’. They appreciate brand allegiance and they want to learn how to sustain it; we have turned our brand around and we’ve maintained it for nearly ten years. We’ve had a very enjoyable time here—pretty much left to our own devices. LFW: But you’re not keen on independent bottlings. If Laphroaig is bottled by someone else it causes us an absolute nightmare. When people ’phone up and complain that a bottle is different we ask for the bottle to be sent to us; it’s usually an independent. I believe we must retain control of quality. LFW: You used to manage Ardbeg. Ardbeg was another challenge. Just when I got it running reasonably sweetly they sold it! I wouldn’t have; a good businessman does not create opposition for himself. If it had been a question of selling or not running it, I would have let it lie fallow—bulldoze it even. That’s with my commercial hat on; when I talk with my heart it’s a different story. I enjoy an Ardbeg and Weatherhead and I were quietly growing the brand—we teased the industry with tiny 100 case lots. All credit to Glenmorangie and what they have done so far; soon they will be a major player in the Islay market. LFW: Any advice for a new manger? There are three people who should not be allowed in a distillery: a chemist— whose nature is change for it’s own sake. Okay, I’m a fiddler (and a nosey person) but I’m also a traditionalist—a distillery is what it is, not what someone would like it to be; an accountant—because he thinks you can make whisky for nothing! And a politician—they see whisky as a cash cow. We are the most legislated and milked industry there is. I have to be restrained as I don’t want to embarrass my company before I retire, but I do worry about the standards of politicians these days—I think they’re all crap. I’m a political and a religious agnostic, I give both kinds of ministers a hard time. I’m sorry if someone doesn’t like that—but that’s what I am. LFW: How do you view the future of the industry? I have to say I’m apprehensive with the new style in management, but then I’m old fashioned. Whisky men like Ronnie and Turnbull were in for the long haul, they gave stability. It seems you need an MBA these days when really common sense and firmness—with understanding—is required. New senior managers come with short term contracts en-route to ‘greater’ things; they can’t get the same passion for the products. I think smaller companies might be the future, if they can grow and retain the style of this industry. Scots have a passion for things indigenous to their country—heritage, history, recovery. But there are far fewer Scotsmen in the industry. Those bloody MSPs in Edinburgh have absolutely no feeling or understanding whatsoever—we’ve seen shipbuilding and locomotive manufacturing go and they’re unconcerned enough to let Scotch Whisky go the same way. That’s a worry. LFW: A Henderson tour is the best; what makes a good distillery tour? If you treat people as you would wish to be treated, you won’t go wrong. On a distillery tour you sell your product, try and tell people how you make and sell the quality. A tour has to be humorous, light-hearted and about the characters who have been here. Occasionally you get wise-guys asking stupid technical questions who just want to show how clever they are. They’re stupid and it’s probably to prove I don’t know the answer; even if I don’t—I’m not worried. We have been caught up in the Islay phenomenon; I’ve never seen such enthusiasm. The Germans especially have grasped all Scottish culture, maybe it’s because we are so welcoming. I was at a whisky fair in Frankfurt where 8,000 turned up in three days. On the Sunday they all turned up in kilts! We had to take ours off so we didn’t look like natives! LFW: So what of your retirement? I’m not prepared for retirement. It was okay when it was five years to go but now it’s five months, I’m just not ready. I’m not invited to the company training seminars anymore, I’m out of the team. It’s something that no one prepares you for. I’d like someone to tell me how I’m supposed to feel at 65! We’ve no plans at the moment, probably going home to Fife. I couldn’t stay here and watch someone else run Laphroaig. I’m a railway enthusiast with a vast collection of models which I hope to put all together at last. That and a workshop. I have amassed some machine tools and there’s nothing I like more than to put on a boiler suit and get stuck in. LFW: Desert Island dram? My beloved Laphroaig 10yo, a Bladnoch and the much underrated Longmorn. LFW: Thank you.