UK: Boortmalt’s Buckie malting plant to increase capacity in 2026

Boortmalt’s Buckie malting plant at Rathven will join the firm’s other Scottish operations in seeing its production capacity increased, Grampian Online reported on December 17.

The local facility will see a 40 thousand tonnes boost to its output in 2026.

Welcoming the move, Yvan Schaepman, Group CEO of Boortmalt, said: “Since 2020, we have focused much on the successful integration of Cargill malt at the global level.

“As a group, we are now in shape to develop our footprint further in strategic markets such as Scotland.

“This expansion paves the way for subsequent ones and demonstrates our commitment to our Scottish suppliers and customers.

“Our production capacity will increase by 40 thousand tonnes at our Buckie maltings and 15 thousand tonnes at our Glenesk maltings. These investments to increase capacity support local distilling customer demand for the highest quality premium malt.

“The expansions will be on stream in the first quarter of 2026 delivering high quality malt from the 2025 barley harvest.”

Stuart Sands, MD of Boortmalt UK and Ireland, added: “We embrace the drive and ambition of our customers to reduce the carbon footprint of their products and by investing in our operations and enabling supply chain solutions for our FLAG (Forestry, Land and Agriculture) commitments we not only support this but we drive impactful change.

“Boortmalt is dedicated to reducing its carbon footprint and promoting sustainable practices across the industry having received SBTi approval for their commitments which include reducing FLAG emissions by 30.3 per cent by 2030.

“In Scotland, Boortmalt sources 165 thousand tonnes of premium malting barley locally from farms. The new expansions create additional opportunities for more than 70 thousand tonnes of quality premium malting barley in the local Scottish farming community.”

The move marks the latest major investment in the plant, with the summer of 2022 seeing the unveiling of a £12 million upgrade which included the construction of what was believed to be the world’s largest kiln. Support buildings at the March Road East facility were also expanded to the tune of 1800m².

Boortmalt is a global malting company with a production capacity of 3.1 million tonnes. The group is present on five continents with 27 malting plants.

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