One of the main maltsters in the UK is on track to complete expansion of its facilities in Arbroath and Inverness by the end of next year.
Bairds Malt, which operates as Scotgrain Agriculture north of the border, made the comments in its latest accounts.
The firm said work on a £51 million project to upgrade facilities in Arbroath and build a new state-of-the-art malting plant in Inverness was progressing despite Covid-19 restrictions.
It said work at the Arbroath site was due to be completed by the end of this year, while the new Inverness facility would be up and running by the end of next year.
“The expansion will bring Bairds’ total annual capacity to over 300,000 tonnes,” said Bairds.
“The new capacity will enable the company to build on its strong relationships and remain a supplier of choice across the Scottish distilling industry.”
The accounts reveal the company posted a pre-tax profit of £10,289 million for the year to September 30 2019 – up from £86,000 the year before.
They also reveal a 16.5% increase in turnover to £135.05m, from £115.921m previously.
Bairds said demand for malt volume was up in the year. However, the firm experienced a drop in volume to the brewing sector as one national customer contract was lost due to price competition.
Commenting on the 2019-2020 financial year, the firm said the outlook for sales volumes had looked positive prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The company has seen its volumes of deliveries greatly reduce from mid to late March 2020,” said Bairds.
“The result of lower beer and whisky production as a result of Covid-19 is currently indicating that 2020 volumes will be more or less the same as 2019 volumes.”
It said the full extent of the coronavirus crisis on the company was not yet known, but it was confident it had sufficient financing facilities in place to allow it to meet its objectives, including expansion plans.
The 2018 figures are restated in the 2019 accounts following a restructure of Bairds operations by its parent company, GrainCorp Limited, which resulted in the Saxon Agriculture division being sold to a fellow GrainCorp subsidiary.