INDEPENDENT Scottish beer firm Innis & Gunn is starting the year with a significant recruitment drive that will see it double its staff numbers to 26.
Twelve of the new positions, which include sales and marketing roles, will be located at the firm’s Edinburgh headquarters, with a final sales position to be located in Canada.
The recruitment is part of an investment programme said to be worth £1 million, which will also see the company re-develop the ground floor and basement area of its HQ into a visitor centre and event space.
The news comes as Crawford Sinclair, UK director of sales at Innis & Gunn, told SLTN the firm had increased its UK sales by 35% in the last year, with exports up by more than 50%.
“The business has gone through a phenomenal period of growth over the last 12 or 18 months, both here in the UK and in our export markets,” Sinclair said. “So in order to ensure that we continue with that growth we have embarked upon quite a substantial recruitment campaign.”
The 13 vacancies open this month and the company is hoping to fill all positions within six months.
Edinburgh-based recruitment consultancy Search has been appointed to head the process.
“We’re looking to recruit across the business in various roles,” said Sinclair.
“There are marketing, sales, production, quality control and various administrative roles.
“Once we’ve put that structure in place the plan is to continue driving forward the way we are. We’ve experienced phenomenal growth at Innis & Gunn in the last 18 months – and just to maintain that growth we have to put these people in place.”
Search has developed a dedicated microsite for the Innis & Gunn positions, which can be found at www.searchconsultancy.co.uk/innis-gunn.
Search director Gareth Biggerstaff said “it’s fantastic to see an independent speciality brewer expanding so rapidly despite the tough economic climate”.
Innis & Gunn has grown steadily since it was founded in 2003, having initially been set up as a joint venture with William Grant & Sons before becoming independent after a management buy-out in 2008. It is now said to be the fourth-largest speciality beer brand in the UK off-trade by volume and value, and the third biggest speciality beer in UK multiple retailers.
Overseas the company lays claim to being the best-selling British bottled beer in Canada and the number two bottled import ale in Sweden.
Its beers are also exported to Ireland, the US, Finland and Norway and are set to enter new markets in the near future, once the new staff are in place.
