Diageo Global Supply Centre | |
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![]() Entrance in December 2016 | |
Former names | Banbeath Bottling Plant |
General information | |
Type | Spirits manufacturing centre |
Architectural style | Factory |
Address | Fife, KY8 5HD |
Coordinates | 56°12′00″N3°01′55″W / 56.2°N 3.032°W |
Elevation | 35 m (115 ft) |
Construction started | 1971 |
Completed | 1973 |
Inaugurated | 1973 |
Client | The Distillers Company |
Owner | Diageo |
The Diageo Global Supply Centre is a main spirits manufacturing and bottling facility in Leven, Scotland, owned by Diageo; as well as much whisky, it bottles Smirnoff vodka.
Work began on building the site in April 1971. [1]
The site was to cost £7-8m, with 900 jobs, over 162 acres. [2] Outline planning permission was given in November 1970, [3] followed by approval of the DCL site in February 1971 by the Secretary of State for Scotland. [4]
Planning approval for the bottling plant was given at Cupar in August 1971. [5] [6] By October 1971, the cost of the site had increased to £10m, for the 24 maturation racked warehouses. Each 100,000 sq-yd (five acres) warehouse would cost £300,000. Blending began in May 1973, [7] with bottling starting in September that year.
A plant at Markinch closed in 1983, with bottling being moved to Banbeath, with the loss of 340 workers while 220 were transferred to Leven. [8]
In 1985 site had 1100 workers. [9] In the early 1990s the site was known as United Distillers Bottling and Blending. In 1996 it was known as the Banbeath Bottling Plant.
The site had a large expansion in 2001 for the ready to drink production for alcopops such as Smirnoff Ice. [10]
An £86m expansion was opened in 2012. This added a luxury products hall and a new bottling hall with six whisky lines bottling Johnnie Walker, Old Parr, Dimple, Cardhu and The Singleton. The expansion of the Leven bottling site was announced in 2009 amid controversy, as Diageo closed down its Kilmarnock bottling plant with long-standing links to the Johnnie Walker brand. That move cost 700 jobs in Ayrshire. More than 40 people took up the offer to move to Fife for work with the company. [11]
The site has a small distillery. The site is Diageo's largest bottling facility, producing 30 million cases a year.
In 2023 Diageo partnered with E.ON and Emtec energy to build Scotland's largest private wire ground-mounted solar farm with 8,000 panels on an area the size of eight football pitches adjacent to the Global Supply Centre and will generate up to 22% of the site’s annual electrical demand, and up to 60% in the summer months. [12]
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Region: Lowland | |
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Location | Leven, Fife, Scotland |
Owner | Diageo |
Founded | 2013 |
Status | Active |
Water source | Town supply |
No. of stills | 1 wash still (1,000 L) 1 spirit still (1,000 L) |
Capacity | 250,000 L |
Leven distillery is an experimental Scotch single malt whisky distillery in Leven, Scotland. It is owned by Diageo and is not open to the public.
Its purpose is to future-proof Diageo’s Scotch whisky business, by finding new flavours and tweaking processes to improve efficiencies. Leven’s distilling team work closely with Diageo’s blenders to experiment with flavours throughout the process, from milling at different settings, playing with different barley varieties, yeasts and heavily roasted malts, and moving cut points. By running its experiments here, Diageo avoids the break in normal production output it would otherwise experience at one of its other distilleries, although some trials are scaled up at select sites.
As well as being the only distillery in Scotland to reside within a bottling facility, it is also one of the only licensed distilleries in Scotland without a spirit safe, having received special dispensation for being an experimental site.
In 2005, Diageo created the Leven’s Process Liquid Development Area (PLDA). This was a new blending and filtration facility to focus on new product development. [13]
In 2013, a fully functional distillery was established at Leven to allow for dedicated experimental distillation projects, becoming Diageo’s 29th working distillery. [14]
While its focus today is to experiment with processes and flavour innovation in Scotch whisky, Leven also distils sake for Diageo’s Jinzu line, the only product to be regularly produced at the distillery.
Scotch whisky, often simply called whisky or Scotch, is malt whisky or grain whisky, made in Scotland.
The Glenlivet distillery is a distillery near Ballindalloch in Moray, Scotland, that produces single malt Scotch whisky. It is the oldest legal distillery in the Highlands of Scotland. It was founded in 1824 and has operated almost continuously since.
Talisker distillery is an island single malt Scotch whisky distillery based in Carbost, Scotland on the Minginish Peninsula on the Isle of Skye.
Diageo plc is a British multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It operates from 132 sites around the world. It is a major distributor of Scotch whisky and other spirits. Distilleries owned by Diageo produce 40% of all Scotch whisky with over 24 brands, such as Johnnie Walker, J&B and Old Parr.
Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky produced by Diageo in Scotland. It was established in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire in 1820, and continued to be produced and bottled at the town's Hill Street plant, once the world's largest bottling plant, until its closure in 2012, a decision announced by Diageo in 2009 which would bring the 190-year association between the brand and Kilmarnock to an end.
William Grant & Sons Ltd is an independent, family-owned Scottish company that distills Scotch whisky and other selected categories of spirits. It was established in 1887 by William Grant, and is run by Grant's descendants as of 2018. It is the largest of the handful of Scotch whisky distillers remaining in family ownership.
A master blender is an individual who develops specific blended spirits using a combination of spirits with different characteristics. For example, in the Scotch whisky industry, master blenders choose which single malts and grain whiskies to combine to make particular brands of blended whisky. A master blender is not the same thing as a master distiller, although one person may do both jobs at small craft distilleries. As the name suggests, the blender creates blends using spirits from different casks and is responsible for making sure the product remains consistent across different batches, while the distiller is either directly responsible for the mashing and distilling of spirits or simply holds the title as the administrative and marketing figurehead of the company.
Loch Lomond distillery is a Highland Single Malt Scotch whisky distillery in Alexandria, Scotland, near Loch Lomond.
Oban distillery is a Highland single malt Scotch whisky distillery located in the Scottish west coast port of Oban. Established in 1794, it was built before the town of the same name, which sprang up later in the surrounding craggy harbour.
Rosebank distillery is a Lowland single malt Scotch whisky distillery situated in Camelon on the banks of the Forth and Clyde canal between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Cardhu distillery is a Speyside distillery near Archiestown, Moray, Scotland, founded in 1824 by whisky smuggler John Cumming and his wife Helen. The distillery is now run by Diageo and the distillery's Scotch whisky makes up an important part of the Johnnie Walker blended whiskies. The word "Cardhu" derives from the Scottish Gaelic Carn Dubh, meaning "Black Rock".
Haig is a brand of Scotch whisky, produced by Diageo in Scotland. It was originally manufactured by John Haig & Co Ltd. since the early 1720s.
Royal Lochnagar distillery is a single malt Scotch whisky distillery based on the Abergeldie Estate, near Balmoral Castle in Royal Deeside. It is close to the mountain Lochnagar. The distillery is in the Highland whisky-producing area of Scotland. The distillery holds a Royal Warrant.
It has been common practice in the whisky industry for more than a century for distilleries to sell barrels of whisky to blenders and independent bottlers as a means of making additional income. In fact, some distilleries exist solely to serve independent bottlers, and do not market any brands themselves.
Mortlach distillery is a distiller of Scotch whisky in Dufftown, Moray, Scotland. Founded in 1823, the distillery is currently owned by Diageo. The whisky is a key component in several Johnnie Walker bottlings, and Diageo also markets four Mortlach single malts.
TheNorth British distillery is a grain whisky distillery located in the Gorgie area of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Teaninich distillery is a scotch whisky distillery in Alness, Scotland.
Cameronbridge distillery Is a grain whisky distillery located in Cameron Bridge, Scotland.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to whisky:
Leven distillery is an experimental Scotch single malt whisky distillery and bottling facility in Leven, Scotland. It is owned by the drinks giant Diageo. The bottling and packaging facility claims to be the biggest packaging plant on the planet. It is also therefore reported as Diageo’s largest packaging plant in the world.