Drink giant Diageo has launched a recruitment drive to fill 38 new jobs at whisky distilleries around Scotland.
The company is looking to appoint six people at the Clynelish and The Singleton of Glen Ord distilleries, near Brora and on the Black Isle respectively, alone.
Another 32 roles are being created in Aberdeenshire (Cardhu and Royal Lochnagar), Perthshire (Blair Athol and Dalwhinnie) and on the islands (Lagavulin and Talisker).
The new jobs are mainly in the distilleries’ visitor centres, covering events, retail and compliance roles, but Diageo is also on the hunt for a regional co-ordinator to work across three sites – Clynelish, Glen Ord and Talisker.
Leigh Aitken, regional brand home manager for Clynelish, said: “It’s a fantastic time to be recruiting for our brand homes as we continue to welcome guests back into our whisky experiences.
“The new recruits will support our top-class offering and work closely with the teams on the ground to help us all deliver amazing experiences to our guests.
“We look forward to seeing applications from local talent and those passionate about the work we do here.”
FTSE-listed Diageo is the international firm behind whisky brands including Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, J&B, Buchanan’s and Windsor.
It also makes Guinness stout, Smirnoff vodka, Bailey’s liqueur, Captain Morgan rum, Don Julio tequila, and gins including Tanqueray and Gordon’s.
The group recently opened an eight-floor visitor centre, telling the story of the world’s best-selling Scotch whisky, Johnnie Walker, in the heart of Edinburgh.
Johnnie Walker Princes Street is the centrepiece of a £185 million investment by the firm in whisky tourism.
The package also includes investment in the visitor centres of four distilleries – Cardhu, Clynelish, Caol Ila on Islay and Glenkinchie in East Lothian – to highlight their contribution to the Johnnie Walker brand.
According to Diageo, it is the largest single investment programme of its kind ever seen in Scotch whisky tourism.
The ambition is to create a “unique Johnnie Walker tour of Scotland”, encouraging visitors to the capital to also travel to the country’s “extraordinary rural communities”.
Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) figures show there are normally 2.2 million visits to distilleries a year, making the industry the third most popular tourist attraction in Scotland.
Numbers for 2020 and 2021 are not yet available but they will have been hit hard by the pandemic.
SWA says the nation’s many distilleries now have a key role to play in post-Covid tourism sector recovery.
It’s a fantastic time to be recruiting for our brand homes as we continue to welcome guests back into our whisky experiences.”
Leigh Aitken, regional brand home manager for Clynelish, Diageo.
Explaining this role on its website, the association adds: “We have a very direct interest in how tourism recovers – for our companies, since many smaller distilleries rely on tourism for over half of their income, and also for the hotels, restaurants, pubs and other attractions that whisky distilleries work alongside locally.”
Commenting at the time of Diageo announcing its mammoth investment in spring 2018, Cristina Diezhandino, now the company’s chief marketing officer but back then its global Scotch whisky director, said: “Scotch is the world’s favourite whisky and Scotland is the greatest distilling nation on earth.
“New generations of consumers around the world are falling in love with Scotch and they want to experience it in the place where it is made and meet the people who make it.”
