Stuart buys the Macallan distillery and the mill, now fully transformed into a distillery – with a 10,000 square foot modern maturation warehouse – is sold to the gin makers W. & A. Gilbey.

Fire, a common problem for distilleries, wreaks havoc at Glen Spey leaving only the still house and warehouses standing. In the long term, the first proves to be good for business: the distillery is built on a completely new plan, establishing an ultra-efficient arrangement of buildings, machinery and apparatus which creates one simple and coherent system.