Buckie-built distillery spirited off to Far East
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A BUCKIE-built distillery is on its way to the Far East bringing to a close a remarkable engineering project.
Thirty-five tonnes of equipment – including stills, flooring and valves, along with 1.3km of piping – left Forsyth's Ltd fabrication facility at Buckie Harbour heading for the Chinese port of Tianjin, where it will be taken to Ordos in the Inner Mongolian Republic and assembled.
On hand to supervise the assembly of the equipment on site will be a five-strong team from the Rothes-based firm, with after-sales support being provided from Forsyth's hub in Hong Kong.
Behind the Ordos project is the firm Meng Tai, a giant company boasting around £3 billion-worth of assets. Acting as middleman in the deal was Dave Valentine from Forfar-based Valentine International Business Connections.
Forsyth's Ltd managing director Richard Forsyth spoke of his pride in the firm and its reputation.
He said: "Dave Valentine was contracted to find a supplier to deliver the distillery and he only wanted to come to Forsyth's due to the strength of our reputation and track record.
"That's something I'm really proud of. This is our first contract in this province and a proud moment for our company as a whole."
Creating the malt whisky distillery was a huge project which brought together over 40 of the firm's employees, spanning a wide range of skills and trades. However, it was Forsyth's work in the oil and gas sector which was provide them with the skills to deliver projects such as the one now heading to Ordos.
Mr Forsyth continued: 2After the Piper Alpha disaster in the 80s we started modular packages for the oil and gas industry.
"These would basically be shipped out and plugged into the rig.
"One of the biggest costs we have with projects abroad is the costs involved in shipping people and and materials over to the site, so when one of our Japanese customers asked if we'd considered doing a modular distillery for them we went for it.
"The distillery was about half the size of the one heading for Inner Mongolia and it proved that the concept worked. Instead of sending a team out for 12 weeks we now send a few guys for a couple of weeks.
"Being able to do the construction in Scotland also means we can keep a close eye on health and safety.
"The concept of building modular distilleries is quite new and hopefully will make us more competitive and attractive to overseas investors."
Mr Forsyth went on to say that Hong Kong was the ideal hub for the firm's operations in the Far East, already having a highly developed business structure with the added bonus of being English speaking.
He added: "We've been doing business with the Far East for 25 years but it has always been remotely from Scotland.
"This is a lot easier, from time zones to being only a couple of hours on a plane away from a customer instead of 14 hours from Scotland."
Delivering a modular distillery is a process which would normally take a year, although Covid slammed the brakes on the Ordos project.
Forsyth's have already constructed three non-modular distilleries in China.
