The £850 000 grant just announced to Douglas Laing & Co. for their Pacific Quay distillery is just part of a much larger amount being invested in food and drink producers. Thirteen companies will receive between them, £3.5 million as part of the Scottish Government’s push to further develop this lucrative part of our economy. You’ll know from previous pieces that we already produce 28% of UK food and drink exports with only 8% of the population. After independence with exports to rUK included, our food and drink exports will be huge. This is new, extra funding on top of the £5.8 million already announced in June.
Manufacturers included are Kettle Produce (not the crisps but vegetables from Cupar), the delightfully-named Kat Roger’s Artisan Dairy, Kelburn Brewing Company and Glenrath Egg Products.
One thing’s for certain, we’ll no starve.
http://www.insider.co.uk/news/scottish-government-awards-13-firms-10889424
Talking-up Scotland 
Sounds to me that somebody at Holyrood is getting on with the ‘day-job’! Maybe a wee note to Ruth and Kezia would be in order – not to mention a quiet word at Pacific Quay?
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Exactly
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Okay, I am going to admit to some serious ignorance here, WHY is so much funding and are so many grants needed for various private businesses? What does the funding go towards? Like the new distillery down by the Clyde, why did it need funding? The whisky industry makes a fortune in profits – so is this just kind-of bribes to get them to build in a certain location? I can understand building affordable homes, and the building industry in general, needing various forms of support, but don’t get it when it comes to fairly profitable businesses – do they not put profits aside for investment or development themselves? Or is it to keep them in Scotland (even if their taxes go to London?).
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