Gordon and MacPhail named as Young Person's Guarantee Employer
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LOCAL company Gordon and MacPhail has been named a Young Person's Guarantee Employer.
The accolade, awarded in December, was achieved as a result of high-quality employment opportunities and career support for young people.
It was presented to Gordon and MacPhail after an assessment period which looked at the support and career opportunities the company provides those aged between 16 and 24.
As part of the application process, Gordon and MacPhail made several commitments to support Moray youngsters in starting a new career in the whisky industry.
Over the next year, the family-owned company will offer seven modern apprenticeships, collaborate with schools and colleges to introduce more young people to the opportunities available to them and offer further foundation apprenticeships.
Alongside the apprenticeships, which cover many aspects of the business, from working in the distillery through to working in specialist roles such as finance or international sales, Gordon and MacPhail provides young people with career mentors.
Maya McNeil is set to start with Gordon & MacPhail early this year as an international sales admin assistant. She said: “Gordon and MacPhail is a long-established, well-known business which has excellent values.
"Because it is a local business, it was accessible to me and meant that I could continue staying in the area. If the role was not available to me, I would have most likely have had to move to a larger city to find more career opportunities.”
Libby Hunt, another of the young people employed by Gordon and MacPhail in the last year, added: “I was attracted to Gordon and MacPhail because of their distinct reputation as a local, family-owned business with strong roots in the community.
"Within the business there are a lot of experienced workers who are ready and willing to share knowledge and help me find my feet, which has been very reassuring for someone starting their first full-time job.”
Jodie Clayton, from the human resources team at Gordon and MacPhail, said: “It’s particularly important to us to create a diverse workforce that provides opportunities to people from all backgrounds and skillsets.
"There is a misconception that young people need to move away to a big city to pursue an exciting career. However, we want to show that this isn’t the case, and that there’s a wealth of opportunity and talent to learn from in the local area if you know where to look.
“We have long been committed to developing our young workforce, now adding the introduction of modern apprenticeships to go alongside our existing foundation and graduate apprenticeships.
"Achieving the Young Persons Guarantee employer accolade demonstrates our commitment to continue to provide opportunities for our future workforce and ensure we are an employer of choice.”
This news comes after Gordon and MacPhail announced strong profits for the financial year 20-21, with total sales increasing by 1 per cent to £34.1 million from £33.7m and pre-tax profit growing from £9.8m to £13.9m.
Continuing to invest for the future, the company is not only dedicating resource to training the next generation but is also gearing up to launch a new distillery, The Cairn, in Grantown-on-Spey in summer 2022.
