WHISKY giant Chivas Brothers is investing £88 million in two single malt distilleries on Speyside as it ramps up production capacity to meet growing global demand.
Chivas Brothers said the investment at the Aberlour and Miltonduff distilleries will fund “significant production capacity expansions” and support efforts to reduce emissions associated with the production process.
The company said the investment is further confirmation of its commitment to Scotland and a testament to the growing global demand for Scotch whisky. This has seen exports increase across all regions.
READ MORE: Cromarty Firth hydrogen production plan to provide boost for distillers
Jean-Etienne Gourgues, chairman and chief executive of Chivas Brothers, said Scotch has demonstrated its resilience as a category over the past few challenging years and opened new avenues for growth for the firm, which is owned by France’s Pernod Ricard.
“This expansion will allow us to increase our volume to capitalise on the increased demand and interest in Scotch, but also supports our drive to reduce emissions,” said Mr Gourgues.
He added: “We’re once again betting big on the future of Scotch so we can bring in new consumers to the category and continue to shape a sustainable future of whisky.”
Chivas Brothers plans to double production capacity at Aberlour. It cited the accelerating global demand for the “cult favourite Scotch which continues to be the best-selling single malt whisky in France and has made significant gains across Asia”. The visitor centre at Aberlour will be upgraded.
The company will build a new distillery at Miltonduff next to the existing one. It describes Miltonduff single malt as a foundation of the key Ballantine’s blends and an important component of other blended whiskies.
Chivas Brothers will install new bio plants at both sites and vapour compression technology, which it said enables a major recovery of the energy used in the distillation process.
The Mechanical Vapour Recompression technology will be used to capture vapour produced in the process so that it can be sent back to heat the stills concerned.
READ MORE: Edinburgh bottler launches whisky to support conservation effort
Both sites are expected to be operating at full production capacity by mid-2025.
A Chivas Brothers spokesperson said: “This significant investment into Aberlour and Miltonduff will have a positive impact on job creation in the region. We expect to share more details on this at a later date, once more production modelling has been completed.”
Some 24 people are employed at the distilleries.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel