THE COMPLETION OF a £5million expansion at a Rothes distillery is being celebrated – along with the doubling of production that has resulted.
The Speyburn Distillery upgrade work has taken two years to complete and has resulted in a new copper still being installed alongside a mash tun that was manufactured by near neighbours Forsyths.
Under the ownership of Inver House Distilleries, Speyburn was first build in 1897 and the refurbishment work has included sensitive restoration of historic buildings at the site on the edge of the Moray village.
Commenting on the growing demand for Speyburn’s produce, in particular in regions such as India and Kazakhstan, Inver House managing director Graham Stevenson said: “The long term demographics for the emerging world are heavily in our favour – we have to position ourselves to exploit that opportunity when it arrives.”
Last week staff gathered for a celebratory dinner on the completion of the upgrade, with operations manager Martin Leonard saying: “Over the past two years we have seen a remarkable transformation of Speyburn Distillery.
“Our beautiful, very traditional site has been enhanced and developed for the future – very much in the spirit of our founder John Hopkins who made the great use of natural resources here in Rothes, more importantly the Granty Burn, the natural stone and the compact space.
“We want to thank Bobby Anderson [distillery manager] and the full distillery team for all their hard work in delivering this ambitious investment and putting so much of their personal vision and skill into the project.”