Edrington unveils £40m investment to expand Macallan whisky distillery

Published on Saturday 1 March 2008 15:47

EDRINGTON, the privately owned Scotch whisky group, has unveiled a £40m expansion of its Macallan distillery to meet growing demand for the single malt.

The deal, the largest single investment by the group in its 150-year history, will increase output by upwards of 30% to more than eight million litres of alcohol per year.

The news comes days after Pernod Ricard announced a major expansion of its Glenlivet distillery and after Diageo's revelation that it is to invest more than 100m in the sector.

The Scottish whisky industry is booming, with exports hitting a record 2.5bn, while sales of The Macallan have almost doubled in the last five years.

Group operations director Graham Hutcheon said the expansion would see the opening of a mothballed stillhouse as well as the creation of six new maturation warehouses and thousands of oak casks.

He said: "This is a tangible sign of Edrington's confidence in the continued successful growth of The Macallan and represents a massive commitment to our Speyside operations. This new facility will provide yet another firm foundation for the future. We must invest in new infrastructure that will allow us to increase our production capacity and sustain the brand's growth potential, as worldwide demand for The Macallan is at an all-time high."

The Macallan is now the number-two single malt Scotch whisky in the world by value. The latest figures show it now sells more than 500,000 cases a year, while its Fine Oak range has seen sales leap by more than 14% in the last year.

The first two warehouses will be completed later this year, with construction of the other four spread over the next five to 10 years.

The announcement rounds off a busy six months for the makers of the Famous Grouse, Highland Park and Cutty Sark. In January, Scotland on Sunday revealed that it was in discussions with an Eastern European consortium to sell its Glenglassaugh distillery at Portsoy in Banffshire for up to 3m. Earlier this month it announced a 200m takeover of the Dominican Republic's leading rum brand, Brugal.

Edrington, which employs around 800 people, is one of Scotland's largest private companies. Including Cutty Sark sales, the company puts itself at number four in size terms in the global Scotch whisky market, with a 9% share – behind Diageo and Pernod Ricard.

The group was founded by the Robertson family in the 1850s. It is now wholly owned by the charitable Robertson Trust.