Public views sought on Portgordon whisky storage facility plans
A PLANNED whisky storage facility in Portgordon has gone out to public consultation.
William Grant & Sons has announced that it will be consulting the local community after acquiring land near the village.
The firm plans to build additional warehousing for cask storage on the land to support the growth of its brands including Monkey Shoulder, Glenfiddich and The Balvenie.
The land is close to a renewable energy plant owned by a subsidiary of the company. It borders the Crisp Maltings site, one of the suppliers to the William Grant & Sons’ site in Dufftown, which includes the distilleries for The Balvenie, Glenfiddich and Kininvie.
A spokesman for the firm said: “In order to keep up with global demand for our brands, we need to expand our operations.
"Building on our historic roots in Dufftown is important to us, and we want to continue to invest locally to ensure that the economic benefits of the growth plan will stay within Moray.
“We will be working in close partnership and consultation with Moray Council and the local community. We want to ensure they are properly informed of our plans and timelines, and that they have an opportunity to discuss any concerns.
“Part of our commitment to the community is to keep reducing the environmental impact of our operations. As an example, we plan to use our biogas-fuelled trucks to transport spirit from the distilleries to the warehouses at Portgordon.
"These specially-converted trucks are fuelled by green biogas that is 100 per cent processed from our distillery residues at our Dufftown site.”
William Grant & Sons Holdings Ltd is an independent family-owned distiller and was founded by William Grant in 1887.