Isle of Harris Distillery’s executive chairman, reflecting on the decade or so since the Tarbert operation opened, declared he was “very pleased” with what a new independent report on the venture’s economic contribution shows.

Ron MacEachran also made no bones about the “worst challenge” that had been faced – job cuts made last year against a tough global Scotch whisky sector backdrop.

Consultancy MKA Economics’ report shows Isle of Harris Distillery has contributed £13.8 million to the local economy and generated £37.7m in turnover since its inception in 2015, driven by the global popularity of its "ultra-premium" Isle of Harris Gin and The Hearach single malt Scotch whisky.

And the report - the findings of which were reported exclusively by The Herald on Tuesday - also highlights the distillery’s role as a primary driver of tourism to Harris. The distillery has welcomed more than 650,000 visitors since it opened.

The MKA Economics report also observes the business has paid £10.7m in wages since opening - a significant figure for an island of 1,800 residents - and is projected to pay a similar amount over the next five years.

And it notes the distillery’s contribution to the current and future prosperity of Harris and the wider Western Isles is further evidenced by the £14.6m invested by the distillery in infrastructure over the last decade.

Isle of Harris Distillery opened in autumn 2015.

Asked how the economic impact of the distillery more than 10 years on compared with what he would have expected at the outset in an exclusive interview with The Herald, Mr MacEachran replied: “When we were raising funding for the distillery, an economic impact projection was made at that point, which was the basis of the........

© Herald Scotland