Fears Kyndal will close two plants

WHISKY group Kyndal is widely expected to announce a swingeing round of Scottish job cuts today as the debt-ridden firm reveals the outcome of its long-awaited restructuring review.

Last night staff were told to prepare for a morning briefing at which it is expected that South African chairman Vivian Imerman will tell them that at least one of its two bottling plants in Grangemouth and Leith will close.

The company, most famous for its Whyte & Mackay brand and Isle of Jura single malt, employs 700 staff in Scotland, including 200 at its bottling operations. Kyndal refused to be drawn on the content of the secretive review commissioned this year by Imerman from City consultants Bain & Co, but sources close to the situation speculated that it is not unfeasible that both sites will close.

One source said: "The problem is they are locked into a very expensive Glasgow office. There is a rumour that they plan to close both bottling plants and move to a greenfield site."

The insider added: "The benefit of a greenfield site is that they can sell their plant in Leith for a considerable sum to a property developer, but if the sums do not stack up, it is a possibility that Grangemouth will be closed."

Today’s announcement comes on the back of a turbulent few months for the firm, which has been rocked by a number of recent high profile departures. Since February, when chief executive Brian Megson resigned, all of the five directors who led the 200 million management buy-out at Kyndal, have quit their executive posts.

Just weeks ago The Scotsman revealed that sales director Ian Gilchrist had stepped down from his role with the firm, a situation exacerbated by the departure of finance director Ron MacEachran, human relations director Alan Mackie and Ian Palmer, operations director.

The four remaining senior managers are Scott McCroskie, now finance director, marketing director Glen Gribbon, company secretary Jim Hanlon and Nick Swan, commercial director.

Publicly, Kyndal and Imerman have kept a united front, maintaining that "restructuring involves job losses" while emphasising the creation of a new marketing and sales department.

But a company source said morale has hit rock-bottom. "Kyndal is an unhappy ship. The departure of Brian Megson sent out a big signal to the staff. Since then a lot of very experienced people have left and there is speculation that perhaps Imerman is being a bit too heavy-handed with the restructuring."