Joint honours for the Urquhart Brothers

Gordon & MacPhail has offered their warmest congratulations to two of their former Managing Directors who were both awarded CBEs in the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Honours List this week.

Ian and Michael Urquhart, both third generation owners of the Elgin based Scotch whisky specialists were granted their honours for services to the Scotch Whisky Industry and to Charitable Work in Moray.

Ian, Managing Director of G&M from 1990 until 2007, having started in the business in 1967, said it was an honour and a pleasure to receive the award in her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee Year. He continued: “I have had the privilege to lead two successful family-owned Moray companies. They are two very different businesses – single malt Scotch whisky and Scottish cashmere – yet they share a commitment to producing the highest quality iconic products, now exported to over sixty markets throughout the world. None of this would have been possible without the support of my family and the wonderful staff at both Johnstons of Elgin and Gordon & MacPhail who I have worked with over the last fifty years.”

Michael Urquhart added: “I am delighted to receive this honour in such a special year for Her Majesty. I like to think this is not mine alone but recognises the Urquhart family as a whole and our role in building a grocer’s shop in Elgin into a thriving business which exports around the world and is now the owner of two distilleries. Ian and I are only sorry our late brother David is not here to see the family honoured in this way.
“None of this, of course, would have been possible without the support and hard work of our wonderful staff at Gordon & MacPhail over the years. And of course, I also have to thank my wife Ailsa and our four children for putting up with my almost nonstop travelling over the years.”

Michael was Joint Managing Director, together with David Urquhart, from 2007 until 2012 when he became sole Managing Director until his retirement in 2014. A Chartered Accountant, he had initially joined the business in 1981 as Finance Director.

Both Ian and Michael continue to be active in local charities and in the wider business community. Ian remains a Deputy Lord Lieutenant and is also President of Johnston’s of Elgin. Michael is as busy as ever in the Scotch whisky industry, as Chairman of the Scottish Committee of the Worshipful Company of Distillers and is also a non-Executive Director at the National Theatre for Scotland and leads the Strategic Business Forum on the Moray Growth Deal.