“It is without doubt the saddest day in the distillery's young life.”

That was how Ron MacEachran, executive chairman and chief financial officer of Isle of Harris Distillery, summed things up as he spoke last week about the decision to implement redundancies at the Scotch whisky and gin producer.

His tone contrasted with that of many corporate leaders I have interviewed over the years who seem to simply not think about, or worse not care about, people as they talk about things having to be done for “the business”. Of course, many business leaders I have spoken to thankfully do grasp the fact that “the business” would not exist as an entity without the people in it.

My conversation with Mr MacEachran left me in no doubt that the Isle of Harris Distillery management team is acutely aware of the profound effects of the decision that has been made about redundancies on the workforce.

This was no surprise to me, given a clear founding purpose of the distillery was to provide sustainable employment for a fragile island community and also my past conversations with management.

The distillery’s current workforce of 45 is significantly higher than what was envisioned would be possible over the years in which those behind it worked to turn the dream of creating it into a reality.

All of this will probably not be of much comfort to those affected by the redundancy process.

And there is no doubt that it is lamentable that the chill being faced by the broader Scotch whisky industry, which had for so long enjoyed such good times, has affected Isle of Harris Distillery’s business in a way which has led management to see no alternative but to make job cuts.

I covered the Isle of Harris Distillery story for years before the venture opened in 2015 - including the vision and........

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