The Glenlivet To Triple Production

By Richard Thomas

Cairngorms National Park Authority has granted permission to Chivas Brothers, owner The Glenlivet, permission to construct expansions to the distillery that should result in a tripling of its production capacity. According to Scotland’s The Herald, the project will create 13 permanent new jobs at the distillery.

Earlier this year Pernod Ricard, the French corporate parent of Chivas Regal, reported that the single malt Scotch brand had sold one million cases in the 2013/2014 sales year. Previously only The Glenfiddich, the world’s top selling Scottish single malt, was shipping over one million cases per year. Although The Glenlivet had long been the #2 selling single malt Scotch brand, in recent years it has gained ground and closed much of the gap with the category leader.

Glenfiddich is usually quoted as being the most productive malt whisky distillery in Scotland, although it and Glenlivet are of similar sizes, both with a theoretical capacity of over 10 million liters of pure alcohol annually. The largest whisky distillery in Europe is DYC in Spain, with a capacity of over 20 million liters, much of which is left unused. Tripling production would make The Glenlivet not just the largest whisky distillery in Scotland, but all of Europe. The increased output could be intended not just for The Glentlivet’s single malt line, but also for use in Chivas Regal’s blended Scotch.

That Pernod Ricard is going forward with its planned expansion of The Glenlivet runs in direct contrast to the choices made by British drinks giant Diageo, who have postponed or cancelled a series of planned whisky expansions.