A £14million expansion of two distilleries in Moray is being hailed by owners Diageo as a “major milestone” in its Scotch whisky investment programme.
The Linkwood and Mannochmore distilleries near Elgin have seen significant expansion over the pas year, part of a £1billion investment by the Whisky giants.
Work has been completed this week bringing a significant capacity expansion to both distilleries. Mike Jappy, Diageo’s investment project direction, said: “We are very pleased to have successfully completed these two expansion projects.
“Both Linkwood and Mannochmore are important distilleries for Diageo, producing high quality single malt whisky for our world-leading blended Scotch whisky portfolio.
“Speyside is at the heart of Diageo’s distilling business and we look forward to progressing the next phase of our investment programme with further expansions in the next twelve months.”
Almost £5million was invested at Linkwood with the creation of a new building to house six washbacks, vessels used for fermentation, and two copper stills. Together these add 50% to annual production capacity at the site.
Mannochmore saw a £9million investment in a new stillhouse, eight washbacks, a mashtun and two copper stills that will double production capacity.
The work is part of an investment programme by Diageo that will also see construction of a new bio-energy plant at Glendullan near Dufftown with plans also in place for expansion work at the Mortlach distillery.