Scottish Whisky Bottler Chapter 7 Liquidates After Sales Collapse

Published November 4, 2025 by John Fegan

Chapter 7 was once a respected name in the slightly obsessive world of independent whisky bottling — the sort of world where people discuss casks the way poets discuss sunsets, only with more spreadsheets. Founded in Perth in 2014, it specialised in buying barrels from all sorts of distilleries and releasing them under its own label, usually in quantities small enough to make collectors twitch with anticipation.

When the world slowed and locked its doors, Chapter 7 kept going. People found comfort in amber light and online orders. Hope came in cardboard boxes with wax seals and tasting notes. So when 2022 arrived with promise and possibility, the company grew, opening a bottling hall in Glasgow. It was a leap of faith, and faith, at the time, seemed justified. Nobody expected the demand curve to turn around quite so fast.

It did.

Then, with impeccable comedic timing, the market changed its mind. Sales slumped. Retailers were overstocked. Importers hesitated. Consumers, it turned out, already had more whisky than they had emotional capacity. And Chapter 7 found itself with swelling overheads, dwindling orders, and spreadsheets that had stopped offering comfort and begun offering commentary.

What Actually Happened

With no new investment and no sensible way to shrink without disappearing entirely, Chapter 7 finally did what so many companies do when optimism runs out and entered liquidation in October. Two employees were affected, which in business-speak means two actual people with names and bills. The liquidators have since confirmed that the brand name and intellectual property have been bought by a “sector specialist,” which is the polite way of saying someone who believes they can resurrect it under better stars and fewer overheads.

The Bigger Picture

They’re not the only ones feeling the chill. Scotland’s whisky scene, once booming like a distillery on overtime, has started to run out of steam. The Famous Grouse got itself a new owner last year. Edrington, the outfit behind The Macallan (a liquid investment portfolio with caramel colouring) and Highland Park, saw revenue down 12 percent and profits sink by over £100 million. Even BrewDog, who’ve built an empire on swagger and slogans, managed to lose £34 million.

Everyone now speaks of “cooling demand,” “stock realignment,” and “temporary headwinds,” which are three delightfully evasive ways of saying the same thing: people are buying less whisky than they were two years ago. And for an industry that prides itself on patience, the waiting suddenly feels a little too real.

The Official Statement

Liquidators from Begbies Traynor (no relationship to the trainspotting anti-hero) confirmed that Chapter 7 had produced more than fifty small-batch releases, many of them award-winning, which is exactly the sort of thing that looks excellent in a press release and appalling on a balance sheet. They also noted that the company’s Glasgow expansion had introduced a cost base that was, to use the technical term, unsustainable once reality reasserted itself.

What Happens Next

Inevitably, someone will revive the brand. They always do. A “sector specialist” or “strategic investor” will issue a press release speaking of “a new chapter,” blissfully unaware that the accountants involved would probably prefer a different metaphor. Meanwhile collectors will start pretending they always loved Chapter 7, rummaging through cupboards for bottles they’d forgotten they had.

The whisky itself remains stored, bottled or in casks, quietly appreciating in value as whisky tends to do. It is the business model that expired, not the product.

There will be other closures, other restructurings and more very calm corporate statements explaining that everything is under control. Meanwhile, warehouses remain full, growth forecasts are being rewritten and the phrase “wait for the market to stabilise” is appearing in more board meetings than anyone wants to admit.

Whisky endures. Balance sheets do not.