Diageo to shed 900 jobs in Scotland

Diageo is to cut 900 jobs with the closure of a whisky packaging plant in Kilmarnock and its Port Dundas distillery in Glasgow over the next two years.

Around 700 of the job losses will come at Kilmarnock, whose packaging operations will be rolled into sites at Glasgow and Fife by the end of 2010.

Diageo said it had opted to close Kilmarnock because of "infrastructure limitations" at the plant.

Some 400 new jobs will be created at the Fife packaging facility, and a new coopering centre is to be created in Clackmannanshire as part of a £100 million investment by the company.

Diageo has stared a consultation over the restructuring but insisted there would be no compulsory redundancies at the sites concerned for 12 months.

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.

"We believe the plans will help secure the sustainability of our business in Scotland. We need to be competitive in a global context and the restructuring is a key part of this.

"We will do everything we can to support our employees through this difficult time.

"We will work closely with local political and community leaders in Kilmarnock so that together we can seek to address the impact this announcement will have on the town."

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