Diageo Invests £10 m In Denmark’s Stauning

By Richard Thomas

Diageo’s venture capital arm, Distill Ventures, is to put £10 m into Stauning, a distillery that is part of Denmark’s growing whisky-making sector. The capital injection is for an expansion that will allow Stauning to increase its current 15,000-liter production capacity by a factor of 50.

Stauning was started a decade ago as a garage business and hobby project by a group of friends, part of the European spread of whisky-making beyond its two traditional regions of Ireland and Scotland. Relative to similar distilleries opened in recent years in France, Italy, Sweden and elsewhere, Stauning is noteworthy for making not just the usual malt whisky, but also a rye whisky.

Under the investment agreement, the founders retain majority ownership of the company, but David Gates, Diageo’s global premium core spirits chief, will sit on their board.