Diageo unveils plans for new malt whisky distillery in Scotland

Diageo, the FTSE 100 alcoholic beverages company, is planning to build a new malt whisky distillery on a greenfield site in Scotland.

The company is currently trying to secure planning permission from the Highland Council for the build, which is expected to cost £50m to build and will have the capacity to distil 13m litres of Scotch annually.

The move forms part of a wider, previously announced, £1.0bn five-year programme of investment in the Scotch whisky division, which it hopes will help it take advantage of the expected growth of the spirit in emerging nations as the so-called 'new middle class' grows.

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Diageo considered three sites for the distillery, and chose Teaninich over the other two.

Brian Higgs, the Director of malt distilling at Diageo, said: "All three sites we considered for the new malt distillery were excellent potential locations, but after detailed investigations Teaninich came out just ahead in terms of the many complex logistics required when planning such a development."

The company plans to spend a further £12m on expansion on the exisiting Teaninich site.

It also plans to invest £30m into operations on Speyside, with the expansion of both its Mortlach distillery and its Glendullan distillery.

Diageo currently owns a total of 28 malt distilleries.

The group's share price rose 1.1% to 2,107.50p by 13:00 on Wednesday.

NR