Jobs shock as Diageo axe Port Dundas distillery

Jul 1 2009

AROUND 140 Glasgow jobs are to be axed after drinks giant Diageo announced it was shutting its historic distillery at Port Dundas.

The firm is shutting the distillery, which has been producing whisky since 1810, and is also closing a packaging plant at Kilmarnock and outsourcing some of its warehousing operations.

A further 30 jobs will go at the group's Shieldhall packaging plant which is to undergo changes to working practices.

In total 900 jobs will be shed across Scotland in the next two years although around 400 new positions will be created by the expansion of a packaging plant in Fife. A new coopering centre will also be created in Clackmannanshire.

The firm is set to enter formal consultations with its staff today.

Bryan Donaghey, Managing Director of Diageo Scotland, said: "These decisions have been extremely difficult to take. We have only reached them after an exhaustive review of all the possible alternatives.

"I am sorry for the impact this announcement will have on our employees and their families in Kilmarnock and Glasgow and the difficulty this will cause in Kilmarnock where we are a major employer.

We believe the plans announced today will help secure the sustainability of our business in Scotland. As Scotlands largest manufacturing exporter, 85per cent of our output from Scotland is exported to over 180 markets worldwide.

"We therefore need to be competitive in a global context and the restructuring announced today is a key part of this."

It's a sad day for Glasgow which will see the end of nearly 200 years of distilling at Port Dundas.

The group is also planning to relocate around 80 office-based staff from Dundas House in Glasgow to another location in central Scotland over the next two years.

Glasgow Liberal Democrat MSP Robert Brown described the news as a "real blow".

He said: "It is now vital that the Scottish Government comes forward and does everything it can to support those affected by these job cuts.

"Ministers must work with local authorities to make sure that all the Diageo staff who lose their jobs are given individually tailored help to ensure they are re-employed or retrained as soon as possible."

Scotland is one of Diageo's largest spirit supply centres, currently employing around 4,500 people and producing nearly 50 million cases of Scotch whisky and white spirits.