One of Scotland’s last remaining independent traditional distilleries has broken ground on a second site as part of a £10m expansion.
Isle of Arran Distillers, which currently operates out of the village of Lochranza, will open the new building in the village of Lagg next year, with a focus on producing more heavily peated single malt whisky.
Based on the south coast of the island, the new development will help boost the current production capacity of 700,000 litres per annum to 1.2 million litres and incorporate a visitor centre as well as warehousing.
The business currently produces a core range of 10, 14 and 18-year-old single malts, as well as the Robert Burns Single and Blended Malts and Machrie Moor Peated Whisky.
James MacTaggart, master distiller of Isle of Arran Distillers, said the Lochranza site had been “at capacity for some time”.
“The Arran Malt continues to grow in popularity. The extra storage alone will enable us to lay down more of the award-winning Arran spirit,” he added.
“I’m also very much looking forward to expanding our peated range. By moving production of Machrie Moor and concentrating the distillation of peated malts on the south of the island, I’ll also be freed up to create more of our extremely popular limited editions at Lochranza.”
The Visitor Centre at Lochranza will re-open soon after completion of extensive renovations including a re-design of the reception area and a tasting bar to help accommodate larger groups of visitors. In the distillery itself, four new stills have been installed.
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