{"id":32016,"date":"2026-07-15T09:57:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T09:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=32016"},"modified":"2026-07-15T09:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T09:57:11","slug":"whisky-curator-toasts-us-growth-and-return-to-india-daily-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=32016","title":{"rendered":"Whisky curator toasts US growth and return to India \u2013 Daily Business"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Andrew-Dane.png\" alt=\"Andrew Dane\" class=\"wp-image-150122 lazyload\" style=\"width:840px;height:auto\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"794\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Andrew-Dane.png\" alt=\"Andrew Dane\" class=\"wp-image-150122 lazyload\" style=\"width:840px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Andrew-Dane.png 794w, https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Andrew-Dane-300x218.png 300w, https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Andrew-Dane-768x557.png 768w, https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Andrew-Dane-600x435.png 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 794px) 100vw, 794px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Andrew Dane: good start to the year<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Andrew Dane, chief executive of whisky curator The Artisanal Spirits Company, said it had seen strong growth in the US, despite a difficult backdrop, and looked forward to the removal of import duties this month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The 10% tariff imposed on Scotch whisky by Donald Trump during a fractious global trade dispute will be lifted on 25 July.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The owner of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society is also looking to return to the Indian market following the UK-India trade agreement that reduced tariffs from 150% to 74% from today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Mr Dane said there would be no short term financial benefits from the India deal, but it would enable the company to build partners ahead of further tariff cuts to 40% in the years ahead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">In the meantime, bottle sales had seen three consecutive quarters of high single digit growth in the US. Australia was up double digits, while UK venues, UK Online and China were relatively flat. EU Online declined by approximately 10% as consumer caution continued and the company continued to control costs accordingly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt has been quite a good start to the year. The core business has gone back to decent growth,\u201d he said in a call with <em>Daily Business<\/em> to discuss the latest trading update.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking about a return to India a decade since it last traded in the country, he said: \u201cWe signed a franchise agreement last year. There is no significant gain in the short term. It is about making sure we get the right partners. <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt is a bigger driver in the medium term. In the short term it is a benefit for the wider Scotch industry and that has to be a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The company said branded sales grew by high single digits, offsetting lower trade cask sales, resulting in group revenue broadly in line with the prior year. <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">EBITDA was maintained due to improved branded business performance and cost control, while net cash flow improved by approximately \u00a31.5 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The company remains confident in delivering its full-year expectations for FY26, driven by continued momentum in its branded businesses and anticipated trade cask sales in the second half.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Bulletin:<\/strong>\u00a0<em>Sign up for our breakfast email of the day\u2019s breaking news<\/em><\/p>\n<p><!-- Simple Share Buttons Adder (8.5.6) simplesharebuttons.com -->           \t            <\/div>\n<p><script>\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\nif(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\nn.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\ns.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script',\n'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n fbq('init', '1192059580980274'); \nfbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/script>#Whisky #curator #toasts #growth #return #India #Daily #Business<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andrew Dane: good start to the&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[16716,9941,266,17446,265,567,172,877,18632,3684,18406],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32016"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}