City News: Arran Distillers, BHS and MyWave
ISLE of Arran Distillers, one of Scotland’s few remaining independent whisky producers, is outpacing its peers with sales up seven per cent for the first half of this year, writes Maisha Frost.
This eclipses the Scotch whisky industry as a whole, which saw a 3.1 per cent upturn during the first six months of 2016, its first increase in three years.
Managing director Euan Mitchell said: “This keeps us on course with our aim to be Scotland’s leading independent distillery.”
Underpinning its success are increased distribution, including a deal with Marks & Spencer, and a focus on exports.
Sales to North America, Taiwan, Germany and France have been particularly strong, says Mitchell, who sees potential markets among women and younger drinkers, who are less concerned with the age of a whisky.
Arran is doubling production capacity at its Lochranza distillery and investing £10million in a new distillery at Lagg in the island’s south.
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BHS, the online retailer resurrected out of the remains of the high-street stalwart, has had over 250,000 visits to its website within a week of going live.
Qatari retail group Al Mana bought the rights to BHS’ online and international operations in June, relaunching the business on September 29.
At the end of its first week, it had over 250,000 visitors to the website and the average spend was £65, compared with £50 before the company’s demise.
About 40 per cent of visits to the revived BHS were through mobiles and tablets, something that was unavailable to customers previously.
BHS carries 500 lighting to bedroom and bathroom items, but will include kitchen and dining products this week, and extend to fashion by the end of the month.
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Consumers will be able to change energy providers without lifting a finger and always get the best deal using technology group MyWave’s robot switching service.
It claims its automatic electricity and gas switching service MyIa.ai can save users hundreds of pounds.
Chief executive Geraldine McBride adds that users will soon be able to set up separate accounts for their elderly relatives, so that they can always be on the cheapest tariff without having to do anything.
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Available on smartphones, MyIa is powered by artificial intelligence and it initially asks you a series of questions about your energy consumption.
Once it has the answers and you give it your details, it continuously scans the market to find you the best deal, using data from energy regulator Ofgem and price comparison sites.
If it finds a deal that saves you at least five per cent, it automatically switches you.
The service is completely free to users.