Operational Academy

Glenmorangie's innovative talent upskilling led to consistent 20%+ annual growth, highlighting LVMH's commitment to sustainable expansion.

Background

LVMH is a French multinational luxury goods conglomerate, formed in 1987 under the merger of fashion house Louis Vuitton with Moet Hennessy. The Glenmorangie Company Ltd, a subsidiary of LVMH, produces 6 million litres per annum of single malt whisky from its distillery in Ross-shire, Scotland and bottled at The Alba Campus in Livingston.

Challenge

Forecasted growth created a defined need to increase capacity at the state of the art Alba Campus bottling facility in Livingston. The key requirement was to do this sustainably through upskilling local management rather than investing in new capital equipment.

Solution

An ongoing programme of SVQ learning had been in place with Glenmorangie and a local college for some time but focused on delivering benefits for the students, not on getting the students to deliver benefits for the business.

Working with the college and Glenmorangie HR, Libra redesigned the SVQ using core Libra training and development modules and focused on the improvement needs of the site. By tying the learning programme to defined objectives on site, the training was immediately relevant. The team were able to apply learning in a real-life environment with SVQ course work and case studies generated around improvements made to operational processes. The ‘train the trainer’ approach deployed reflected the varied nature of the skills within the management team, from some very technical focused personnel to some more suited to coaching and mentoring. This approach also ensured the sustainable delivery of changes

Results

Over four years, there were consistent year-on-year productivity improvements in the range of 20%+ (rebased annually). This progress was significantly bolstered by the use of a self-funding learning and development programme, which was effectively scaled across the wider organisation. Additionally, a credible SVQ process was delivered. Throughout this period, both the management and operators remained deeply engaged, taking full ownership for the enhancements and improvements made to their business.