Isle of Harris

Startup Isle of Harris Distillers has won a £1.7m investment package from HSBC to support development of its Scotch whisky.

The package was allocated from the bank’s £10bn SME fund, £500m of which is ring-fenced to support Scottish companies. It would aid “further investment in [the distillery’s] maturing single malt whisky stock” said HSBC. The first batch is excepted to be ready for bottling from late 2020, and will be called The Hearach.

The investment would help Isle of Harris, which also produces gin, become “a catalyst for economic growth for the island and to create even more sustainable jobs for local people”, said its MD Simon Erlanger. “We hope with the wider availability of the single malt we’ll see the business grow and also attract even more tourists to the distillery and Harris.”