Overview and key points
Tomatin Distillery, a historic Highland whisky producer, faced complex operational risks and financial pressures. Find out how Partners& developed a tailored insurance and risk management programme that protected high value stock, reduced premiums, strengthened cyber resilience, and supported the distillery’s long term growth while earning leadership trust and securing industry confidence.
Challenge
The Tomatin Distillery Company Limited is a globally recognised and historic Scottish whisky distillery. Operating from a single, expansive site in the Scottish Highlands, the distillery faces complex challenges, including managing high-value-stock (with rare casks dating back to 1967), and the logistics of operating bonded warehouse facilities across multiple locations as well as the day to day running of an operational distillery, managing a busy visitor centre and on-site shop. The distillery site also has a railway line running through its premises.
Financial pressures in a globally struggling whisky market led the board to consider cost-saving measures such as reducing critical insurance cover, including their cyber protection.
Ewan MacDonald had been in dialogue with Tomatin over a number of years, building a relationship. Through those conversations, he demonstrated how the Partners& approach and our capability in this sector could enhance their risk management programme.
These regular meetings deepened our understanding of their business and included site visits with our underwriting team from Virtu, brought their specialist stock knowledge and solutions to the table.
Tomatin appointed Partners& as their insurance advisory partner in early 2025.
Support
We delivered a tailored solution that addressed Tomatin’s unique exposures and operational complexities:
- Virtu’s specialist expertise: Our underwriting experts, Virtu, led by Jack Levack, played a pivotal role in designing a bespoke stock policy. Jack’s extensive knowledge of the brewery and distillery sector ensured cover was included for whisky stock, dry goods, and customer-owned casks, as well as delivering innovative features such as the Newly Distilled Spirits Clause. This clause eliminates the need for constant mid-term adjustments, giving Tomatin automatic cover for new acquisitions and alleviating administrative pressure
- Cyber protection: Introducing our Cyber Director, Matthew Clark, to discuss Tomatin’s cyber risk exposures enabled Matthew to present an accurate picture of Tomatin’s business to the insurance provider. As a result, Matthew maintained the essential cyber cover whilst negotiating cost, reducing the premium by nearly half the current amount
- Site segmentation: Utilising drone footage and expert analysis to demonstrate clear physical divisions within the site, enabling insurers to reassess risk and reduce premiums
- Local expertise & credibility: Jack and the Virtu team brought underwriting expertise to on-site meetings, asking the right questions and demonstrating genuine understanding of distillery operations, helping to gain board-level trust
- Futureproofing: Designing the insurance programme to support Tomatin’s growth ambitions, including tourism and experiential offerings, while introducing opportunities for private client and employee benefits solutions for their team
We had been speaking with Partners& for several years and were always impressed by their understanding of our industry and the insurance solutions available.
Perform:
The team at Partners& delivered a comprehensive, cost-effective insurance programme that included:
- Significant premium savings without compromising critical cover
- Enhanced first-loss limits (maximum payout limits for a single claim) and broader protection tailored to stakeholder expectations
- A flexible structure that supports both operational resilience and strategic growth.
Tomatin’s leadership team felt confident with the programme, and have subsequently endorsed Partners& with referrals to their network.
We’ve found Partners& to be knowledgeable, proactive and easy to work with. They quickly took control of our existing arrangements, engaged both current and new insurers, and took the time to fully understand our business. The results speak for themselves.
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