CVH Spirits operates three distilleries with different production profiles, ageing infrastructure and site constraints. The business, however, needed dependable support for statutory inspections, steam and combustion systems, valve servicing and reactive engineering work.
Previous arrangements involved multiple suppliers, which made urgent issues harder to coordinate and increased pressure during short shutdown windows.
As Murray Kerr, CVH Spirits’ Deanston & Tobermory Distillery Manager explains: “With ageing plant, capacities were going up and downtime was becoming more critical to reduce. We couldn’t rely on our previous suppliers to meet our requirements to get here on time and fix problems.”
One contract, one point of contact
CVH Spirits implemented a 12-month rolling contract with Boiler & Valve Engineering and covering all three sites, bringing together site surveys, engineering support for statutory inspections, valve servicing, calibration, combustion services, gas safety checks and a 24/7 call-out service. That gave CVH a single engineering partner across boiler, steam and valve requirements.
As Murray explains, the arrangement also simplified communication with insurance inspectors and reduced the burden of managing separate contractors. “It’s still a single point of contact, rather than contacting two separate companies and trying to orchestrate everything, especially with the likes of insurance inspectors.”
Routine steam-trap surveys also became part of the service, helping to identify ongoing energy losses and give the distilleries clearer reporting on where remedial work could improve efficiency.
Commenting for Boiler & Valve Engineering, Andrew Macdonald says: “The priority was to give CVH Spirits one point of contact across all three distilleries, so planned work, inspections and reactive support could move faster and with less coordination overhead.”
Faster action when uptime is at risk
The strongest business case for the contract was production protection, with Murray quantifying the risk clearly that if production was down for 36 hours, they would lose £28,000 worth of production, and that’s just the cost of goods.
“When an inspection finds an issue, speed and clarity matter. The aim is to bring the right people in quickly, manage the paperwork properly and help the site return to operation as soon as possible.” says Andrew.
Murray reflected this by saying: “There have been times at Deanston where we could be at the distillery on a Saturday morning trying to get hold of previous contractors only to be told they couldn’t get anyone to site until Monday. I’d call Andrew Macdonald and he’d have one of the Boiler & Valve Engineering team here that afternoon, if not on the Sunday, and that was without a contract in place.”
At Tobermory, that risk became real when an annual inspection identified a leaking feed nozzle with a pinhole, making the boiler unavailable until it was repaired and reinspected. Boiler & Valve Engineering sourced the pressure vessel repair company, handled the paperwork and worked directly with Zurich to keep the repair moving during a shutdown that was initially planned for two weeks yet, despite the repairs, only ran to 19 days.
Murray contrasted that response with the alternatives available at the time: “Other suppliers were quoting up to two weeks just to attend site, while Boiler & Valve Engineering helped compress the route to repair and subsequent restart of operations.”
Technical support that goes beyond emergency call-outs
The relationship has also delivered value through broader technical problem-solving, with Boiler & Valve Engineering’s team bringing together different specialists when issues arose, helping the distilleries diagnose faults and decide on the right response without defaulting to unnecessary replacement work. “They’re very good at problem solving and not just wanting to buy new parts or rip everything out. We’ll have multiple heads working on something, and that’s the big difference.” says Murray.
That support proved especially valuable at Tobermory, where an unexpected D-patch requirement on a relatively new boiler created added logistical complexity because of ferry travel, accommodation and equipment transport restrictions. Boiler & Valve Engineering kept pushing until a specialist was in place and ready to begin the following week.
A service model built around responsiveness
For CVH Spirits, the value of Boiler & Valve Engineering lies in responsive support across complex operating environments where compliance, continuity and speed all matter. By combining multiple engineering services under one contract and responding quickly when unexpected failures occur, Boiler & Valve Engineering has helped the business reduce coordination friction and protect production across three distilleries.
Summarising that value, Murray Kerr says: “I’m a sucker for good service. The less somebody stresses me out, the more likely they are to stay around, and the more people help me get out of a hole, the more I value them.
“If I push back, Boiler & Valve Engineering don’t shy away from that. They take it on and continue to push. If it’s not good enough for me, they don’t accept it as good enough for them.”
Learn more https://www.boilerandvalve.com/
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