ABOUT 300 new jobs are to be created over the next three years as part of major expansion plans by craft beer company and pub operator BrewDog.

The company's founders James Watt and Martin Dickie announced the investment in the headquarters at Ellon, Aberdeenshire. A new 4,500-square metre, eco-friendly building is planned which will join on to the existing brewery building and a new tank farm is planned on the site.

It is hoped construction will begin at the start of the year, with the new premises expected to open by 2016.

The company, which has 220 employees, will create an extra 300 jobs, the founders said, with new bars opening in cities around the UK.

They added: "Our current brew-house and fermentation capacity is likely to be maxed-out by the end of 2015. So we have some pretty exciting plans to develop our eco-friendly, high-tech Ellon BrewDog HQ,

"We can grow 10 times our current size and we will still be less than 0.5 per cent of the UK beer market. We are absolutely tiny in the context of UK beer consumption overall, and we are determined to grow and also expand the craft beer category to get as many people as we can to share the passion we have for craft beer."

BrewDog was founded in Fraserburgh in 2007. The business moved to nearby Ellon in 2012, although the there is still a brewing laboratory at Fraserburgh.

Messrs Watt and Dickie say the brewery is a small player, with only one in every 2,200 beers drunk in the UK being BrewDog. It owns bars in a many locations, including Glasgow, London, Brazil and Japan.