"We are aware of the likely high demand for this product, driven by what we hope is the quality and desirability of the whisky itself. However, we are aware of the secondary demand for these bottles amongst whisky collectors and the manner in which that can drive prices up very quickly. With that in mind, we would like to make the following points:
The prices we have set should allow most bottles to be sold at a price between £82.50 and £90.00 within the United Kingdom, or an approximate equivalent of that in export markets. We do not set Recommended Retail Prices (RRPs) and leave it up to each retailer to set their own prices as they see fit.
We acknowledge that pricing upwards of £80.00 may be seen as expensive for an 11yo whisky.
Due to the success and popularity of the previous Local Barley, we feel we could have set our pricing much higher for this release if we were purely concerned about maximising profit. However, we decided to sell the whisky at a price which will allow Springbank drinkers around the world to purchase a bottle, open it and enjoy the contents while at the same time making sure we as a company make a reasonable amount of money from our product.
There is a dramtically increased cost in producing whisky from barley grown in Kintyre compared to other parts of Scotland. This is mostly due to three factors: the cost of sourcing the barley itself is usually higher; we have to “work harder” with the barley during the malting process in order to be able to turn it into whisky; we get a lower yield from the local barley (approximately 10% fewer litres of alcohol from each tonne of barley).
There can be price variations from country to country due to alcohol duties, sales taxes, shipping costs and currency fluctuations, so the price band mentioned earlier could change slightly. However, with certain exceptions, these variations should not manifest themselves in retail prices massively above those stated above. If you are in one of those countries where the system for distributing and selling alcohol leads to higher prices, then if you want to take on your provincial, state or national government then we’ll be on your side.
We have no control over other companies’ profit margins and make no attempt to dictate how others should run their businesses but we do wish to emphasise that the whisky will be available around the world at reasonable prices in due course, even if not immediately due to the aforementioned shipping times.
We express no judgement on the practice of “flipping” (buying bottles and immediately making them available on the secondary market) other than to re-iterate that this whisky will be distributed around the world over the coming weeks, albeit in relatively low numbers in comparison to the expected demand, and at prices much closer to what we would consider reasonable than those we have already seen on some websites."
-Springbank Distillers
