International Beverage completes warehouse construction
The construction of six new warehouses at the Scottish headquarters of International Beverage has been completed, boosting storage capacity for the company’s future growth plans.
The major expansion programme in Airdrie, Scotland, took 15 months to complete and added six state-of-the-art bonded warehouses to the site. This has increased capacity by 60,000 casks and enables the site to house approximately 700,000 casks overall.
Representing a £7 million (US$9.37m) investment, the new warehouses are part of an upgrade of storage and logistics capabilities across the business. They will provide much-needed extra maturation space for spirit from the International Beverage’s five Scottish distilleries.
In turn, this will support the company’s long-term global growth plans for its premium spirits portfolio, which includes Old Pulteney, Speyburn, Balblair and anCnoc single malt whiskies, Hankey Bannister blended Scotch whisky, Caorunn Gin, and Phraya Rum.
Positioned on the east side of the site, each warehouse is 900 square metres and has been constructed to the highest technical, production and safety specifications, using steel portal frame fabrication. The design also includes a full surface water drainage system, plus high-tech CCTV and alarm systems.
International Beverage managing director Malcolm Leask said the investment indicates the company’s confidence in the future of its award-winning brands, despite what has been a challenging few years for the Scotch whisky sector.
“The completion of this new warehousing is another major step forward for our business following a busy period of acquisitions and new additions to our spirits portfolio,” he noted. “We now have some of the industry’s most modern, high-quality bottling and storage facilities at our Scottish headquarters, allowing us to manage stocks of our premium Scotch whiskies with greater efficiency and scale.
“While current trading conditions in our industry are challenging, whisky is a resilient sector. I’m very proud to be building for the future – and to see the ongoing evolution of our Airdrie site as a thriving hub at the heart of our global business.”
The project was managed in partnership with The Malcolm Group, one of the UK’s leading providers of logistics, construction and maintenance services.
Ian McDonnell, senior project manager, construction division at The Malcolm Group, added: “Our business is known for its expertise in industrial projects, and we have brought the very highest levels of design, construction and technology to this new facility.
“The spec and quality we have delivered for these warehouses is at the forefront of what’s possible in the Scotch whisky industry. We’re very pleased to have played our part in ensuring the continued production of high-quality spirits for International Beverage.”
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