Emperador expands Invergordon Distillery

The Scotch subsidiary of Emperador, Whyte & Mackay, will double the footprint of its Invergordon Distillery in response to ‘growing global demand’ for single malt whisky.

Whyte & Mackay will expand its whisky maturation complex at its Highland distillery Invergordon, doubling its footprint from 45.4 hectares to 92 hectares.

The extension will enable the grain distillery to house an additional 1.5 million casks of maturing whisky.

Emperador also operates four single malt sites – The Dalmore, Fettercairn, Jura and Tamnavilin – under its Whyte & Mackay arm.

Whyte and Mackay CEO Bryan Donaghey said: “Scotch whisky is a business that requires very long-term planning and the acquisition of this site reflects the scale of our ambition, not just for the next few years but for many decades to come.”

In May this year, Emperador said it would spend P6 billion Philippine pesos (US$107m) on whisky to meet ‘growing demand’. It also noted that upgrades were ‘necessary’ at Emperador’s five Scottish distilleries to scale operations.

Emperador president Winston Co added: “This expansion is part of Emperador’s continued efforts to strengthen our production in response to growing demands for single malt whisky in various markets worldwide. We want to address the scarcity of aged liquids globally, and this will allow us to strengthen and support a core segment of our business.”

In May 2022, Whyte & Mackay submitted a planning application to expand The Dalmore distillery.

Emperador’s whisky division delivered ‘high growth’ with sales increasing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18% from 2020 to 2022.