‘Big plans’ for former Grantown East centre say new owners
The Strathy can reveal that the new owners of Grantown East have big plans for the place - but it’s too early to say what those are.
London-based Elixir Distillers acquired the former Highland Heritage and Culture Centre a few weeks ago for an undisclosed sum and are now in the process of deciding just how to progress.
Speaking exclusively to the Strathy today, co-founder and director of Elixir Distillers Rajbir Sawhney said: “We need an understanding of just where the benefits are for the whole community and tourists.”
“It’s very early doors. We need to think about this constructively and see what is right for the area.”
“There are a lot of distilleries within the Speyside range, some 50-plus and two thirds of the Scotch whisky distilleries are within that locality so it would be more a case of keeping all distillers on board and working with these relevant distillers.
There was no timetable at this stage, he confirmed: “It’s too early. If I were to say X, Y and Z and it didn’t happen that way I’d be deceiving your readers.
But there was confidence in the new owners that the move would “most definitely be good for the local economy, most definitely good for encapsulating life skills and jobs for those, which I’m sure are much needed within the area.
“At the end of the day, Grantown East was a heritage centre, it was a cafe of some description so let’s see where we are with what we have. I need to get an understanding of the train carriages and how fit for purpose they are.”
