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News
Diageo expansion work commences
Groundwork is underway at Diageo’s £86 million expansion of its bottling plant in Fife, Scotland, in preparation for the closure of plants in Kilmarnock and Glasgow.
The project is expected to boost production to around 30m cases a year and create 400 jobs, although much ill-feeling still exists over the closure of the Port Dundas distillery in Glasgow and the Jonnie Walker bottling plant in Kilmarnock, ending the whisky brand’s 190-year-long association with the town.
Diageo says the new jobs at the expanded plant will help to offset the 900 job losses incurred at the two other sites.
The world’s biggest drinks company insists the restructuring of its Scottish operations is essential to safeguard its long-term prospects in the country and only took the decision to close the Glasgow and Kilmarnock sites after “an exhaustive review of all the possible alternatives”.
Campaigners called the decision “catastrophic” and even the Scottish government got involved in trying to force Diageo bosses to change their minds.
The company refused to budge, however, and the Kilmarnock Packaging Plant in Ayrshire is due to be closed over a two-year period with the loss of around 700 jobs by the end of 2011.
The closure of Port Dundas Distillery in Glasgow and the adjacent Dundashill Cooperage will result in a loss of up to 200 jobs, although it is hoped that some employees will relocate to a new cooperage in central Scotland.
80 office-based employees will relocate from Dundas House in Glasgow to another location in central Scotland over the next two years.
A new £9m cooperage will be built at Diageo’s existing site at Cambus near Alloa by summer 2011. Diageo’s nearby Carsebridge Cooperage will be closed.
The relocation of around 40 roles from Carsebridge Cooperage to Cambus, together with some roles relocating from Dundashill Cooperage, would bring the total number of jobs at the new Cambus Cooperage to about 70.
Diageo says the expanded Fife facility should be operational by summer 2011.
Alan Lodge, 09.06.2010