Australian-owned Scottish distillery Bladnoch has been honoured with one of the most prestigious business awards in the UK, the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for its excellence in international trade.

Bladnoch Distillery is among the winning businesses able to use the Queen’s Award Emblem for the next five years.

Bladnoch Distillery is the oldest privately owned Scotch Whisky distillery and the first ever to be owned by an Australian. In 2015, Melbourne-based entrepreneur David Prior acquired Bladnoch, embarking on a new chapter in the history of the iconic distillery and created Pure Scot, an award-winning Blended Scotch inspired by the Australian and Scottish environment.

Nearly seven years on, and Bladnoch Single Malt and Pure Scot Blended Scotch Whiskies can be found in more than 50
countries worldwide and the company sells directly to consumers in the UK, Australia and the US via their fast
growing e-commerce store.

Head of Commercial Will Pitchforth said: “The growth of the Bladnoch Distillery business has been a reflection of the dedication to quality and exceptional whisky making, combined with a philosophy, core to our way of working, to conduct business with integrity and fairness, recognised by our network of trusted distributors around the world.

“Managing the export side of the business from Australia has brought some challenges, especially during the pandemic, however it meant we were well prepared to work remotely and continued our rapid pace of growth.”

Bladnoch is in the top three Lowland whiskies sold in almost all of its export markets, with Germany, China and the
US all growing at more 100% in the last year alone.

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