Bacardi has announced a major investment in the production sites of its Scotch portfolio that includes malt whiskies Aultmore, Aberfeldy, Royal Brackla, The Deveron and Craigellachie as well as the Dewar’s blended Scotch.

Bacardi has operated five distilleries across Scotland – Aultmore, Aberfeldy, Royal Brackla, Craigellachie, and Macduff – for more than 25 years.

“As the trend for premium Single Malt and Blended Scotch whisky continues to gain momentum, family-owned Bacardi is investing in the future of the category with the completion of several improvement projects at its production sites across Scotland,” said Bacardi.

“Most recently, the company added three new state-of-the-art aging warehouses at its 200-acre blending and maturation centre, Poniel in southeast Glasgow.

“The warehouses utilize a more efficient design which increases capacity by over 15%, and in turn, additional jobs have also been created at the site.

“Meanwhile, at Aultmore Distillery in Speyside, a multi-million-pound expansion project was completed last month to improve efficiency and safety and install new technology to help reduce energy and water consumption on site.

“Most significantly, the distillery now uses Thermal Vapor Recompression (TVR) technology which captures, compresses and reuses vapor in the distillation process to improve energy and water efficiency.

“A new boiler has also been installed to have the capacity to switch to hydrogen fuel in the future – a move that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the distillery.

“The improvement project which has taken almost two years of careful planning and design, includes a new Tun room, still house, boiler house and closed loop cooling tower …

“Work has also been underway at Macduff Distillery, the home of The Deveron Single Malt. Last year, Bacardi completed significant site improvements to overhaul the mashing equipment, create a new air-conditioned control room, and drive energy and water savings by implementing high gravity mashing.”

Keith Hogg, VP Supply Chain, Europe, Bacardi, said: “Our investment in Aultmore and Macduff distilleries and our Poniel blending and maturation centre is an important step in the bold plans we have for our premium and ultra-premium whiskies.

“We are so proud of the exceptional quality of our award-winning Scotch whiskies and are investing in its growth for the long-term.”