Malt supplier unveils plans for new plant in Speyside

40 acres of land snapped up for potential new site Move comes on back of strong sales growth last year

Simpsons Malt, which supplies many of Scotland’s whisky distilleries, has unveiled ambitious plans to build a new facility in Speyside.

The fifth- generation, familyowned company has entered into an agreement to acquire 40 acres of land near Rothes where local customers include The Macallan, Glenrothes and Glenfarclas.

Although the company has stressed that plans are at a very early stage, the land purchase deal paves the way for it to build a state- of- the- art maltings and storage facility.

The construction of a new maltings would expand the largest independent UK maltster’s number of sites in the country to three, with its other facilities located in Berwick- upon- Tweed, Northumberland – where the company’s headquarters are located – and Tivetshall St Margaret, Norfolk.

Simpsons Malt managing director Tim Mccreath said the expansion move is in line with the company’s long- term strategic objectives.

Mc C r e a t h c o mme n t e d : “Having a maltings and malting barley storage facility in Speyside i s s omething we have given serious thought to for a number of years and, subject to planning and due diligence, we will begin construction when the time is right and demand is there from our customers.”

Founded in 1862, Simpsons Malt supplies brewers and distillers across the world.

It also operates an agricultural trading division, Mccreath Simpson & Prentice, which has farming partners across England and Scotland.

Latest figures for the group showed it delivered a profit before tax of £ 9.8 million in 2019, up from £ 7.5m the previous year, with turnover up to £ 168m from £ 156.6m.

At the time, it stated that one of the key reasons behind t he i ncrease i n both profit and turnover was a rise in malt sales volumes through increased plant utilisation.

Its merchanting arm also performed well and Simpsons said it had benefited from having an integrated supply chain.

When it released the figures in March, it said malt demand in both the distilling and brewing sectors continued to be strong.

The company invested more than £ 3.3m in its sites during the year.

Last month, Norfolk- based Crisp Malt opened a new £ 2m packaging line in Alloa.

The company said the facilit y, which can bag relatively small quantities of malt, would increase its support of Scottish farmers and craft brewers.

Crisp said it will provide craft brewers with greater access to barley that has been grown, malted and bagged in Scotland.

The maltings, which is located on Alloa’s Castle Street, currently produces 28,000 tonnes of malt for brewers and distillers across Scotland.