Diageo Halts Production at Barley Malter for Whisky Distilleries
If you were hoping for a story with some good news about the whisky industry, we have some bad news for you—some more bad news about the whisky industry arrived a few days ago. Once again it has to do with Diageo, one of the biggest drinks companies in the world, which announced that it is shutting down one of its facilities that supplies malted barley to its many distilleries around Scotland.
Most distilleries in Scotland don’t actually malt their own barley, the process in which barley is germinated and then heated to stop the process before being turned into mash and distilled. Instead, they purchase malted barley from industrial facilities that perform this job on a large scale, enough to supply many different distilleries around the country. Diageo owns four different maltings—Burghead, Glen Ord, Port Ellen, and Roseisle. The last one is the facility in question, a maltings located in Elgin which has been operating since the early ’80s. We reached out to Diageo to find out more, and received the following statement: “We have temporarily paused production at Roseilse Maltings as we look to balance capacity against current demand. We continue to assess production volumes and will communicate future plans as part of the normal planning cycle.”
The problem is that demand has been slowing, as evidenced by Diageo pausing production at various other distilleries around Scotland (Teannich) and in America as well (Balcones, Dickel). And it’s not the only company to do so—Brown-Forman paused production at Glenglassaugh almost a year ago, and Midleton in Ireland shut down temporarily last spring. But according to a source familiar with the situation, the pause at Roseisle, which is also home to a distillery that came online in 2010 and released its first single malt in 2023, may go on for much longer than anticipated.
The plan was for the maltings to stop work until June of 2026, but future production is “under review” and Diageo is communicating with suppliers to plan for the future. The company is also said to still be feeling bullish about the future of scotch whisky, but is “managing capacity requirements in line with our levels of maturing inventory.” In other words, supply is outpacing demand at the moment, so it’s time to pull back a bit.
Other maltings may be at risk too. According to a recent article in the U.K. paper The Press & Journal, Bairds Malt is also closing its Pencaitland Maltings facility due to what it’s calling a “medium-term reduction in demand.” And all of this news doesn’t just affect the whisky industry—it also affects farmers who supply the barley to the maltings. As far as jobs at those malting facilities, while Bairds had to cut 19 positions, Diageo says that its Roseisle staff has been redeployed to other sites. We will keep you updated on more whisky industry news—good or bad—as it develops across all categories.
