Diageo is to invest a total of £92m into its Highland production.

The expansion by the drinks firm also includes the construction of a new whisky distillery, which is being planned for Easter Ross.

It is understood the company, which is the largest distiller of Scotch, has chosen a greenfield site near Alness – next to the existing Teaninich distillery. However, it will have its own name and identity.

Up to 20 jobs will be created by the new facility and will have the capacity to produce around 13 million litres of spirit a year from 16 copper stills. Full planning applications will be submitted to Highland Council and the company hopes to begin work on the new distillery in 2014.

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Diageo said the new £50m distillery was part of its £1bn five-year investment plan which was launched last year.

In addition to the above, the firm plans to invest £12m in expanding the existing Teaninich distillery to almost double its capacity. It also aims to invest around £30m in new production facilities at Speyside, including a project to substantially increase the capacity of the Mortlach distillery at Dufftown.

Another element of the investment will be the construction of a new plant at Glendullan to process co-products which will be used to power the Glendullan distillery.

Brian Higgs, Director of Malt Distilling at Diageo, said: "All three sites we considered for the new malt distillery were excellent potential locations but after detailed investigations Teaninich came out just ahead in terms of the many complex logistics required when planning such a development."

(JP/CD)