FRENCH drinks giant Pernod Ricard is to follow arch-rival Diageo in building a new distillery in Scotland to cater for burgeoning international demand for whisky.
Pernod's whisky and gin business Chivas Brothers has begun the planning process for a new malt whisky distillery on the banks of the River Spey near the village of Carron.
It will increase Pernod's malt whisky output by 10% to 15%. The spirit will be used primarily in Pernod's blends which include Chivas Regal, Ballantine's and Royal Salute.
Chivas Brothers' chairman and chief executive Christian Porta said: "Our success in growing our brands across the world, in existing and new markets, to many historical highs means that creating new distillation capacity is a key next step for our business.
"This new distillery will supply high quality Speyside malt whisky for many of our blends in the years to come."
Chivas Brothers previously set out plans to boost malt whisky distillation capacity by 25% by April 2013 with the re-opening of the Glen Keith Distillery at the beginning of next year and expansion of four existing Speyside distilleries.
Pernod previously reopened Allt A'Bhainne in 2005 and Braeval in 2008.
It also increased the capacity of the Glenlivet distillery, home to its flagship single malt, by 75% in 2010.
As reported by The Herald in February, these projects left Pernod with little scope to boost capacity at any more existing distilleries and the company started considering new-build plans.
Meanwhile, arch-rival Diageo, the company behind Johnnie Walker, last month submitted pre-planning applications for three sites in Speyside and Ross-shire, one of which it will choose for a new 13 million-litre malt whisky distillery.
In 2010, Diageo opened the £40 million Roseisle on Speyside, the first major new malt distillery built in Scotland for 30 years.
The companies are investing in capacity in anticipation of con-tinued rising demand from emerging markets.
However, problems in the eurozone have weighed on the industry in recent months.
Exports stalled in the first half of 2012, according to figures from the Scotch Whisky Association.
The new Pernod plant will occupy the site of the Imperial Distillery which closed in 1998. Pernod acquired it with its purchase of Allied Domecq in 2005.
Pernod said the new distillery would use new technology, such as heat recovery systems to recoup energy from the distilling process. It also intends to blend the buildings in with the surrounding scenery and fit in with local architectural styles.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article