Century-old, single-malt whisky producer, Speyburn has recently completed a multimillion pound renovation of its distillery which will see production of its award-winning range more than doubled. The £5m project, spanning two years, came around after consistent and growing success in the marketplace and will see annual production rise from 1.8 million litres to over four million – seeing Speyburn become the largest whisky producer within the Inver House Scotch Whisky distillery group.
Martin Leonard, Operations Director for Inver House was suitably pleased with the project, commenting at the launch that the new distillery would provide Speyburn the space and production power to grow in line with increasing demand. He added that the major renovation and extension also improves the company’s environmental standpoint – something of great importance to both the firm and the wider industry.
Renovation works saw the addition of 15 stainless steel washbacks as well as the refurbishment of four existing Douglas fir washbacks – boosting Speyburn’s fermentation space considerably. Alongside, the company has also introduced a third still, providing the facility a single large wash and two spirits stills.
In respect of the improved environmental performance which Leonard highlights, an environmentally-friendly, Thermol vapour recovery system used to regenerate steam has been installed, providing a 20% efficiency improvement compared with Speyburn’s previous facility. Likewise, by-products created during the distillery process are transported to a nearby renewable power generation facility operated by CORDe in Rothes.
Placing emphasis on locality throughout the project, Speyburn appointed Rothes-based, Forsyths Ltd. as main contractor for the renovation project – a partnership which has proven to be extraordinarily successful. The contractor only had a small footprint to work with in view of the facility’s position in the Speyside valley and yet managed to meet exactly the requirements of the firm in terms of space, technologies and quality.
According to the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), Scotch Whisky is experiencing a major revival and, following the successful renovation of its distillery facility, Speyburn hopes to be at the spearhead of such sector-wide growth.
