The Elgin-based whisky specialist and distiller Gordon & MacPhail recently received a special visitor when the Queen’s Representative in Moray, Lieutenant Colonel Grenville Johnston OBE TD CA, presented the firm with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise.

Gordon & MacPhail won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade in April this year. The firm was commended for achieving a 94% increase in the value of total exports over the last five years. Directors and staff were presented with a crystal bowl engraved with The Queen’s Awards emblem as a symbol of its success as well as a grant of appointment.

The company is now also entitled to use the emblem in all its marketing and on packaging for the next five years, here and abroad. The Lord Lieutenant of Moray was presented with a special bottle of 1965 Glen Grant Single Malt Scotch Whisky as a gift for the Queen.

Gordon & MacPhail employs a total of 130 people in Elgin and Forres. It stocks around 300 different whisky brands and cares for some of Scotland’s oldest and rarest casks in its warehouses. The company purchased the almost-derelict Benromach Distillery in Forres in 1993 and has built the Benromach brand worldwide since re-starting production there 10 years ago.

Michael Urquhart, Joint Managing Director commented, 'We’re extremely proud to have won the internationally renowned Queen’s Award and hope to use this success to further expand our already flourishing international trade. The presentation ceremony was a wonderful opportunity to share this achievement with our team of dedicated staff from bottling line to boardroom, all of whom have contributed to Gordon & MacPhail’s success.'

The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise exist to champion the UK’s most enterprising, creative and sustainable organisations – from all business sectors. Applications for the 2010 Awards are now being invited. For more information, visit www.queensawards.org.uk