UK Cigar Scene Magazine October Issue 10 | Page 26

Profile - Stephen Johnstone,
owner of Robert Graham
Stephen Johnstone may be new to whisky and cigar retailing but he has a quiet
determination. He also has , a hugely successful business career behind him, all wrapped in
a passion for both whisky and cigars which means his progress in developing this historic
business should be watched closely..
Stephen started his career on the shop floor at
Dixons and rose rapidly. Within two years he
was managing a store and he continued to rise
through a succession of new and ever larger
stores. He moved into sales with two German
consumer goods companies and then joined PJH
a distributor of kitchens and electronics. Initially
as Sales Director and then on the board as part of
a management buyout. When the company was
acquired by a Taiwanese company he stayed for
five years and then decided it was time to head off
and prove himself in his own business.
In 2012 he started to look around for a business
to acquire or buy into. After passing on a number
of different opportunities he received a call from
an Edinburgh accountant who had the details
of a company which he thought ‘would interest
Stephen’
Stephen had developed an interest in whisky
which stemmed from a 15 year hobby which he
started to turn into investment. His love of cigars
came, as it has for so many people, from a trip to
Cuba with his daughters and a few sticks picked
up in Havana.
So when the accountant told him that the
company he had to show him was a chain of 5
whisky and cigar stores based both north and
south of the border, not only was he interested
and excited, but he knew exactly which company
it was.
It took eight months to close out the purchase of
the company and Mitchell Orchant, one of the
original partners in the business with whisky
expert Ron Morrison, retains a share in the new
business.

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Robert Graham originally started in 1874 and was
family owned until Ron Morrison bought the
business, by which time it has shrunk to just one
store. Having met Mitchell Orchant on a Davidoff
trip to the Dominican Republic the two set up
in partnership with cigars being supplied to the
stores by C.Gars. Morrison took the company into
bottling rare whisky and together they grew the
business to five successful store stores based in
Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cambridge and London.
For differing reasons the partners wanted to pass
Robert Graham onto a new owner and they were
looking for someone with the foresight to bring
further expansion to the business.
I asked Stephen whether being a whisky collector
and a cigar lover clouded his business judgement.
He told me that he thinks he has the best of
both worlds. He is a business man who can turn
both his passions and his business mind into
something profitable.
It is nearly a year since the deal was done and
it’s clearly been a hugely busy twelve months.
A new EPOS system has been installed to give
better visibility of stock and sales. A new web site
is nearing completion and will deliver a wealth
of new features for whisky and cigar customers.
Rebranding of stores and product is underway and
once this is done Stephen feels he will have the
base to start the next stage of his plan to grow the
business from its existing estate of five stores to
twenty.