SCOTCH whisky distiller Chivas Brothers is leaving its headquarters site at Paisley, where it has been for more than 50 years, and investing £40 million in expanding its bottling operations and building new offices in Dumbarton.

Laurent Lacassagne, chairman and chief executive of Chivas Brothers, said that all permanent staff at the Paisley site would be offered continuing employment at Kilmalid in Dumbarton.

There are 587 staff at Paisley. Mr Lacassagne noted about two-thirds of the workforce at the Paisley site were in manufacturing operations including bottling, packing, and logistics, with the remainder in office-based roles such as finance, information technology, human resources and legal services.

Chivas Brothers, which produces brands including Chivas Regal, The Glenlivet and Ballantine’s, has about 690 employees at Dumbarton, which is primarily a bottling site and is about 13 miles from the Paisley site.

The new state-of-the-art bottling facility at Dumbarton will have an annual capacity of about 240 million bottles. Mr Lacassagne signalled this was broadly similar to the current total capacity of the Paisley and Dumbarton sites.

The Dumbarton site, home to Ballantine’s, became part of the Chivas Brothers operation more than a decade ago when the Scotch whisky distiller’s French parent company, Pernod Ricard, bought Allied Domecq in partnership with Fortune Brands.

Chivas Brothers said the enlarged Dumbarton operation would build on a “rich 80-year history” in the town for its Scotch whisky business.

Mr Lacassagne said all options would be considered for the Paisley site, including sale or redevelopment. He emphasised that the company was “very happy to engage with the local communities” about the possibilities for the future of the site.

Asked yesterday to estimate how many of the Paisley employees would choose to move to the Dumbarton site, Mr Lacassagne replied: “We have just informed them. What I can say, as we said to all our employees today, [is that] our intention is to offer a job to every permanent employee who is based in Paisley at the moment...It is too early for me to answer to you on that.”

He hammered home his belief that it was “important” that an opportunity was being provided to everyone to retain a job with the company.

Chivas Brothers, which was acquired by Pernod Ricard from Seagram in 2001 and also produces premium gin, plans to close its Paisley site by the end of 2019.

The Paisley site was officially opened in 1964.

Mr Lacassagne said: “It is a long history here.”

Referring to the briefing yesterday of employees at Paisley about the move to Dumbarton, Mr Lacassagne said: “We just had our information meeting. Obviously [there is] no need to say that many people have been working in this site for a long time, so are very close to the site.”

He emphasised the company fully understood and appreciated the significance of the announcement for the Paisley staff, “emotionally”.

Mr Lacassagne added: “I believe people understood the rationale of the project – [that we are] doing this to invest in the future of our business, doing this to develop a very modern, state-of-the-art bottling facility which will be an asset for our business and our brands. I think they understood.”

He declared the investment showed Chivas Brothers’ confidence in the prospects for its business and the Scotch whisky sector, underlining potential in emerging markets.

Mr Lacassagne said: “It shows our confidence in the business, in the future of the business. We strongly believe that Scotch whisky has very strong potential in the world. [It shows] our commitment to Scotland of course. Our brands are rooted in Scotland.”

A new bottling hall at Paisley was opened by Chivas Brothers in 2012, following significant investment. Mr Lacassagne emphasised most of the investment had been in “high-quality equipment for luxury products”, and added that this would be moved to Dumbarton. This investment would therefore not be “lost”, he said.

Mr Lacassagne said: “The bottling line equipment, everything that was invested in at the time, high-quality luxury goods equipment, will transfer to Kilmalid, where the intention is to more or less replicate the same kind of set-up, with a dedicated space for this high-end product.”

Chivas Brothers said it intended to start the transfer of operations and activities from Paisley to Kilmalid from 2018, creating an integrated operation by the end of 2019.