BERWICK-UPON-TWEED, ENGLAND — Simpsons Malt, a fifth-generation family malting and merchandising business headquartered in Berwick-upon-Tweed, has reached an agreement to acquire the grain merchandising business of W.N. Lindsay Ltd.

As part of the deal, Simpsons Malt will acquire four storage sites located in Gladsmuir in East Lothian, Stracathro in Angus, Keith in Morayshire, and Sidlaw in Perthshire. The sites will provide more than 200,000 tonnes of extra in-house grain storage, further securing the malting barley supply chain and enhancing traceability for both the grower and end user.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The acquisition comes two months after Simpsons Malt announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire 40 acres of land in Rothes, Speyside, subject to planning and due diligence, where it intends to build malting barley storage facilities, increasing its number of sites in the UK from two to three.

“W.N. Lindsay Ltd is an established, well-known family business with an excellent reputation in Scottish and UK agriculture and we are delighted to have the opportunity to acquire its grain merchanting business,” said Tim McCreath, managing director of Simpsons Malt. “This combination provides a strategic opportunity to further secure our malting barley supply chain, as well as to increase our product and service offering to our growers.

“All suppliers within the cereal supply chain are increasingly accountable to the end user and even the consumer — particularly on product traceability and sustainability — and as a pivotal buyer of malting barley and supplier of malt, we are ideally placed to play a leading role in improving supply chain management for the benefit of our growers, as well as our distilling and brewing customers.”