Summit ratchets up pressure on Diageo to save whisky jobs

Published on Friday 14 August 2009 22:04

UNIONS, politicians and Diageo staff met for a summit yesterday in a fresh bid to save 900 jobs at the drinks giant ahead of a crucial few days that could decide the future of the historic Johnnie Walker plant in Kilmarnock.

The meeting came as the Scottish Government is poised to unveil its jobs rescue bid in the next few days. Consultants for Scottish Enterprise are putting the finishing touches to a business plan that campaigners are hopeful will change Diageo's mind.

The drinks giant signalled last month that it was going to close its sites in Kilmarnock and at Port Dundas in Glasgow, while expanding its plant in Leven, Fife, creating 400 jobs there.

However, ministers have described the proposals as "unacceptable", as they would end a 150-year association between Diageo's Johnnie Walker brand and Kilmarnock, where the whisky was first distilled.

At the summit yesterday, Glasgow City Council leader Steven Purcell and local MSP Patricia Ferguson argued more focus should be placed on the threat to jobs in Glasgow, where 90 posts are pencilled in to go.

Mr Purcell is understood to have raised concerns that, with the focus having been on Kilmarnock, the cuts in Glasgow have been all but accepted. Ms Ferguson said: "There is renewed momentum in the campaign … the meeting today was useful in planning how we are going to take it forward."

Liberal Democrat Glasgow MSP Robert Brown added: "The Scottish sites are interlinked and Diageo must be persuaded to retain a presence at them all."

Meanwhile, a Scottish Government spokesman said that finance secretary John Swinney would host a meeting of the full taskforce next Wednesday, when the final rescue bid would be put to Diageo. The spokesman said: "The main items for discussion will be the independent consultants' report into Diageo's business case, and the development by the taskforce of alternative proposals."

Hopes are still alive that the taskforce can persuade Diageo to have a change of heart. It comes after a local campaign, which culminated in a 20,000-strong rally in Kilmarnock. However, Diageo maintains the move is necessary to secure the long-term viability of the business as it moves from three Scottish bottling plants to two, saving 20 million a year.

Its production line will be updated with a new 100m bottling plant at Leven.