The news, which the company said had no impact on jobs, comes just weeks after Diageo announced it is closing its Johnnie Walker bottling plant in Kilmarnock with the loss of 700 jobs, with another 200 jobs going at the Port Dundas distillery in Glasgow.

Christian Porta, chief executive and chairman of Chivas Brothers, said: “Market conditions have been tougher in the last 12 months.

“We have reduced some distilleries running on a seven day week to five days a week just to be a little bit on the cautious side.”

He acknowledged this is on the back of reduced growth expectations in the near term.

Chivas Brothers, which is owned by French drinks giant Pernod Ricard, controls around 20% of the Scotch whisky market. Its whisky sales have suffered in the past six months of 2009, with volumes of Ballantine’s down 4% and Chivas Regal off 5% year-on year.

Porta said that the company is continuing with plans to double output at Glenlivet, where sales volumes were up 5% year-on-year in the fist half.

He added that it is keeping open the previously mothballed Braeval and Allt-A-Bhainne distilleries reopened in the past couple of years.

“We haven’t gone back and closed them down again. We just reduced the output and we will see how quickly the market recovers,” Porta said. “We are very optimistic about the long term. We believe that the demand for Scotch whisky will continue to grow.”

He said the industry should not repeat what he called the “mistake” of the 1990s when production was cut back sharply after the Asian financial crisis.

Asked which distilleries have cut back production, a spokeswoman said: “I cannot say which distilleries. We are just adjusting levels of distilling.

“That doesn’t represent any sort of job cuts.”