There is much to be positive about the future of GlenWyvis distillery, especially as we have critically acclaimed whisky and award-winning gin on sale. We have been recognised for our community engagement and distributed more than £30k in grants to organisations in Dingwall, Strathpeffer and Culbokie, making a positive difference to people’s lives.
In recent months there have been media articles about a dispute with our landlord, Mr John McKenzie. Court action restricted what we could say, but since the landlord’s appeal was dismissed on 16 July 2024 and other actions have concluded in our favour it is time everyone understood the facts.
In our opinion, when he is under scrutiny our landlord’s construction of reality often crumbles. In our opinion, Mr McKenzie’s actions have been diametrically opposed to the interests of our investors, whose money he was happy to accept, but to whom he has shown neither loyalty nor responsibility.
As the Court heard, after establishing GlenWyvis, the distillery ran into financial trouble under Mr McKenzie’s management. He resigned and a rescue plan was put into place. Although this offered Mr McKenzie a dignified exit, and it was our intention to pay tribute always to his vision and hard work in establishing GlenWyvis, he began a campaign of complaints against the distillery. As a former friend told the court, he ‘seems to be set on trying to destroy the company that he has created’.
Mr McKenzie intimidated and harassed staff. He shouted and behaved aggressively towards them, monitored their movements, stopped them as they went about their business and prevented them from leaving work. This was extremely distressing and led to staff and volunteers leaving GlenWyvis. Mr McKenzie also obstructed vehicle access on regular occasions. Each day of lost production due to these obstructions was costly.
Mr McKenzie made many counter allegations in court about the distillery and the actions of its Management Committee. However, Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald ruled that Mr McKenzie tells ‘untruths’. She found his behaviour to be ‘erratic’ and that he would ‘deny matters that were objectively factually correct’. She said, at times, the testimony he gave was ‘bizarre’.
Mr McKenzie’s behaviour and public allegations have been hugely disruptive, because they consumed scarce distillery resources and time to prove them unfounded. Not only did these waste the time of staff and volunteers, they also consumed unwarranted attention within public bodies (including the planning authority, environmental health, fire service, and police), as well as contractors and service providers to the distillery (hauliers, delivery services, engineers and surveyors, auditors, and other professionals). Of Mr McKenzie’s allegations, very few were supportable by the facts.
This has been a painful period in the distillery’s history and completely avoidable. This legal action cost tens of thousands of pounds, all of which would otherwise have gone towards making profits to pay interest to our members, to invest in the distillery, Dingwall and our wider community. We also could not allow the continued harassment of our staff, which is a ‘redline’ for everyone on the Management Committee. However, we wanted to reassure you that we have been awarded costs in connection with the case, including the landlord’s appeal, which we are now in the process of recovering.
So we now call on your support. Please challenge any misinformation you come across and please support the distillery by buying our excellent whisky and gin! We want to get back to what we do best, making great spirits. We want as soon as we can to pay interest and more benefits to our investors, and support Dingwall and our wider community.
If you would like to read the court judgement for yourself, you can access it below.
Sincerely,
The Management Team at GlenWyvis Distillery
