Summary
THE controversy surrounding Diageo's stated intention to rationalise its production facilities is masking a far greater problem for the wider Scottish economy ("MPs unite to condemn Diageo plan to axe jobs", The Herald, July 8). Although the figures for 2008 are not yet finalised, it is anticipated that global volumes of Scotch whisky released to the domestic UK market and exported overseas will total a little over 329 million litres of pure alcohol (LPA).
If that proves to be the case, 2008 will show little improvement over the 1978 figure of almost 323 million LPA. A growth of fractionally over 1per cent in volume during the 30 years of the greatest economic boom the world has seen is hardly the definition of success. Admittedly, the figures for 2008 are still provisional and the latter half of 2008 had some well-documented economic problems, but firmer and smoothed five-year annual averages covering the period 1977-1981 and the period 2002-2006 tell much the same story: a total growth of 1.14per cent over the 25-year span, equivalent to an annual growth in physical volumes of 0.145per cent.See the full content of this document
Extract
Scotch Whisky Industry has Recorded Poor Growth Over 25 Years
Generally, when the industry talks about "growth", it refers to sales revenues, n...
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