A £40 MILLION plan to build Scotland's first major distillery for three decades was unveiled yesterday.
Diageo, the world's largest drinks company, believes the facility is needed to help meet anticipated long-term demand for whisky in growing markets like Brazil, Russia, India, China and Mexico.
The firm, which owns brands including Johnnie Walker
, is planning to develop the country's "first distillery for the 21st century" in Speyside.
The state-of-the-art distillery will be built at Roseisle, between Elgin and Forres, where Diageo already operates a major maltings facility.
Confirmation of the Diageo investment is the second major boost in less than a fortnight for the heartland of Scotland's whisky distilling country.
Perth-based firm Edrington earlier this month announced plans for a multi-million-pound investment in six additional whisky maturation warehouses next to its existing Macallan distillery on Speyside.
Both investments reflect the sustained growth in the worldwide whisky business after sales rose by four per cent last year to £2.5 billion.
Diageo's new planning application is part of the company's £100 million expansion plan for Scotland announced in February. It will see approximately £80 million spent on expanding capacity in malt and grain distilling, with £20 million dedicated to packaging and warehousing.
A spokesman for Diageo said: "The building of a new distillery, using the most modern environmental and distilling techniques, comes at a time of sustained growth in Diageo's Scotch whisky business worldwide.
"Subject to planning consents, it is hoped that construction of the new malt distillery, producing single malt spirit for a range of Diageo's blended Scotch whiskies, will begin this year with the distillery opening in early 2009. On that schedule, the first mature spirit from the distillery would be available from 2012."
The distillery is billed as being the "most energy efficient" development of its type and will aim to be water and fossil fuel neutral. It is expected that the facility will create around 25 new jobs.
Bryan Donaghey, the managing director of Diageo Scotland, said the investment in Moray underpinned the company's commitment to Speyside and to Scotland as a whole.
He added: "It is an investment that is essential to the long-term strategy for the development of our business here and has been made possible by the close and constructive relationship we have nurtured with Moray Council, the wider local community and other key stakeholders.
"With this new state-of-the-art distillery we aim to meet demand well into the future - a good deal for the local area, the Scotch whisky industry and the Scottish economy."
Diageo already employs more than 4,000 people north of the Border and currently operates 27 malt distilleries and two grain distilleries.
David Williamson, a spokesman for the Scotch Whisky Association, said the Diageo investment reflected the industry's growing confidence.
He said: "You have got export growth worldwide both for single malt Scotch whisky and for blended Scotch whisky. That export success is supporting investment across the industry and that is good news for the Scotch whisky industry and the wider Scottish economy."
THE GREEN DISTILLERY
THE proposed Roseisle complex is expected to be Scotland's most environmentally friendly distillery.
It has been hailed by Brian Higgs, Diageo's malt distilling director, as the "distillery of the future".
The 14 copper whisky stills will be of traditional design, as will the mashing tuns where the sugar is extracted from the malted barley before yeast is added, and the "wash backs" in the second stage of the fermentation process.
Mr Higgs said: "We are using all of the expertise and traditions we have learned over the years and building that into a distillery for the future. The real breakthrough design is what we are putting into the support plant from an environmental perspective.
"This will be the most environmentally advanced malt distillery in Scotland."
The design includes plans to link the nearby maltings to the distillery and to reclaim water used in the distilling process and pump it back to the maltings to be used in the making of the malt.
Diageo also plans to burn the draff - spent grains left after the whisky-making process - to provide 60 per cent of the steam required to produce whisky.
