SCOTCH whisky producer The Glenmorangie Company has unveiled a multi-million pound investment in its Ardbeg distillery on Islay.

The undisclosed investment will see a new still house built at the distillery, doubling the number of copper stills to four.

The move comes just weeks after a similar upgrade was announced at the Glenmorangie distillery.

The still house on Ardbeg will significantly increase capacity at the distillery, enabling Ardbeg to produce between 1.4 million and 2.4 million litres of alcohol each year.

Glenmorangie said the larger still house “will ensure a steady supply of whisky to meet rising demand from the ever-increasing numbers of Ardbeg fans”.

Glenmorangie, which acquired the mothballed distillery in 1997, said that subject to planning approval from Argyll & Bute Council, work will begin this year and will be completed in 2019.

Designed to regenerate a site at the heart of the distillery, this traditional-style building will house a total of four copper stills.

Under the plans, the new still house would be built on a site once occupied by maturation warehouses. The plans would see the distillery work with two wash stills and two spirits stills, while the space currently housing the stills will be re-purposed to accommodate further washbacks.

Planning permission for a new boiler house has already been granted and work is under way on site.

Glenmorangie said the expansion would lead to jobs being created on the Islay, but couldn’t yet specify how many.

The investment comes as Scotch whisky has just enjoyed a record year for exports, with sales of £4.3 billion, up £356m on 2016. This included a 14.2 per cent increase in sales of single malts, to £1.17bn.

Marc Hoellinger, chief executive of The Glenmorangie Company, said: “We are delighted by Ardbeg’s success since 1997 – and by the growing passion for our whisky from fans around the world.”

Just two weeks ago the Glenmorangie distillery in Speyside announced multi-million pound plans for a new still house which the company also aims to get under way this year.

The upgrades would hugely increase the volume of whisky supplied to international markets from roughly a decade hence, based on the 10 year-old expressions on the standard variants of Glenmorangie and Ardbeg.

Owned by the French giant Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (MHLV), The Glenmorangie Company, turned over £84.3m in 2016, the last financial period for which accounts are available. Pre-tax profits that year were £19.8m, helped in part by the launch of the first 21-year-old Ardbeg expression for 15 years.

Established in 1815, Ardbeg is widely known for being the smokiest of the Islay malts. Production ceased at the distillery in 1981 before small-scale distillation took place under new ownership between 1987 and 1991.

It was only in 1997, when The Glenmorangie Company acquired the distillery from Allied Domeq that full-time production returned.

Since its renaissance, Ardbeg has enjoyed year-on-year growth, helped by the Ardbeg Committee, a 120,000-strong members group for fans of the whisky. Ardbeg made global headlines in 2011 when it sent samples into space. The experiment saw vials of the spirit sent to the International Space Station to investigate how zero-gravity affected the maturation process.

In spite of the rise in capacity, Ardbeg said it would remain one of the smallest distilleries on Islay, and the malt would be made using the methods in place more than 200 years.

Distilling on Islay has been reinvigorated in recent years, with new distilleries such as Kilchoman, and Ardnahoe, which is being built by Hunter Laing.

Whisky giant Diageo has also unveiled plans to return production to the Port Ellen distillery.