Supply chain
Edrington's supply chain operations incorporate the following processes:
- Packaging procurement
- Bottling
- Cased goods outbound logistics
- Single service centre, spanning customer and technical services, purchasing and overall supply planning.
Packaging procurement
Edrington spends around £25 million every year on packaging materials for its brands. Most suppliers are global businesses with local operations in Scotland, including Owens Illinois (glass), Smurfit (cases), Field Packaging (cartons) and Guala (closures).
Bottling
The Group's Great Western Road site in the west end of Glasgow handles over 85 million bottles of Scotch whisky every year using 12 lines, which are operated on a mainly day/twilight shift pattern, including its flagship Line 1, the fastest whisky bottling line in the world.
This line, representing a major manufacturing investment by Edrington, fills, labels and packages up to 10 bottles of key brands, like The Famous Grouse and Cutty Sark, every second.
The Group's skilled and experienced workforce operates within the internationally recognised quality and environmental standards ISO9001:2000 and ISO 18001 - the aim is always to deliver products with the highest standards of manufacturing practice to global customers.
Cased goods outbound logistics
After bottling, Edrington palletises and stretch-wraps its cased goods prior to carefully loading them into containers for export to over 100 international markets. The cased goods warehouse handles over seven million cases every year.
Single service centre
Created in 2000, the SSC integrates the purchasing, planning, technical and customer service functions, which support the delivery of all Edrington's key brands in an efficient and best practice fashion. Business processes are driven by a leading-edge SAP enterprise computer system.