Drinks giant Diageo is "very confident" over finalising plans for a whisky tourism centre in Edinburgh.
Scottish chief David Cutter is reported to be in "final talks" for the Johnnie Walker visitor experience at the former House of Fraser building in the city's Princes Street,
Speaking on the Johnnie Walker visitor centre plan, Mr Cutter told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme: "We are very confident that we will end up in that part of the town."
Exciting plans from @DiageoGB for the @johnniewalker_ Visitor Experience, proposed for the west end of Princes Street, #Edinburgh. #ETAG2019 pic.twitter.com/nlVs2TZQ5C
— Essential Edinburgh (@EssentialEdin) January 31, 2019
The news was discussed at the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group conference today.
Mr Cutter also said: "We're in negotiations to finalise the deal to open up the Johnnie Walker experience across Scotland.
"We're very excited about the opportunity to bring in people from around the world to Edinburgh to experience Scotland and Scotch whisky, and then venture out to the four corners of Scotland as well."
It comes as the Guinness owner played down the possible impact of Brexit as its UK sales continue to do well.
It said a no-deal scenario would have a "limited" effect on its supply chain, and it has "appropriate stock levels" to mitigate any risk.
Shares in the company climbed as much as 4.7% to hit a new all-time high on Thursday as it released its latest results.
Drinks firm Britvic has posted a 4.5 per cent rise in sales to £352.4 million for the three months to December 23.
Constant currency revenue at the FTSE 250 firm increased 1.5% to £337.3m.
"We have delivered a solid start to the new financial year, with performance in line with our expectations," chief executive Simon Litherland said.
Britvic shares were trading flat at 884.5p on Thursday afternoon.
Furniture retailer ScS saw like-for-like order growth of 1.5% for the 26 weeks ended January 26, but flagged that Brexit poses a threat to the firm.
ScS added that it has now ceased trading from all 27 concessions within House of Fraser, following the department store chain collapse and subsequent acquisition by Mike Ashley's Sports Direct.
Earlier this week, ScS confirmed it is in talks for the potential acquisition of online rival Sofa.com, going up against Mr Ashley.
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