Boost for Scotland’s food and drink

13 Food and drink producers have been awarded grants totalling almost £3.5 million to diversify and expand operations.

Recipients include Douglas Laing & Co Ltd who have been awarded over £855,000 to help fund the construction of a new distillery in Govan, Glasgow, and Maxwell Farms Limited to expand their vegetable processing plant in Aberdeenshire.

Kettle Produce Ltd from Cupar, Fife, are awarded £279,000 to construct a new complex capable of short and long term cold storage for 4,500 tonnes of swede, carrot, pointed cabbage, cauliflower, kale and courgettes.

The awards have been made through the Food Processing, Marketing & Co-operation grants awarded by the Scottish Government, totalling £3.5 million.

Speaking about the awards, Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing said:

“Scotland’s food and drink industry is a cornerstone of our economy, environment and culture, and the quality of our produce is world renowned.

“We are announcing £3.5 million of new funding for 13 organisations across Scotland which will support sustainable cooperation and collaboration from primary production and processing to the market, so industry can continue to flourish.

“I congratulate each recipient of these awards, and wish them the best of luck for the future.”

Background

Full list of awardees (totalling almost £3.5m):

• Douglas Laing & Co Ltd, Glasgow, are awarded £855,430.07 towards the construction of a new distillery in Glasgow. Will go towards the creation of office space, pre-production storage, distilling equipment, warehousing of casks, bottling and finished product storage.
• Maxwell Farms Limited, Aberdeenshire, a family business growing and processing root vegetables, are awarded £634,783.60 for a washing, grading, overwrapping and retail packing facility.
• Glenrath Egg Products, an egg processing business near Peebles, are awarded £427,000 for egg processing equipment to double their existing capacity to access new markets in the food services sector.
• Kettle Produce Ltd from Cupar, Fife, are awarded £279,000 to construct a new complex capable of short and long term cold storage for 4500 tonnes of swede, carrot, pointed cabbage, cauliflower, kale and courgettes.
• McDonald Agri Ltd, Angus, a vegetable processing business are awarded £167,998.80 for the construction of a packhouse and various processing equipment.
• W & R Logan Partnership from East Lothian has been awarded £244,949.60 to extend the company’s original packhouse and to install technically advanced cabbage sorting and over wrapping equipment.
• Coleburn Investments Limited, Moray, are awarded £246,476.54 for the building works and distilling plant & equipment to create a boutique distillery at the existing Coleburn Distillery site.
• Kelburn Brewing Company Limited, East Renfrewshire, are awarded £54,471.98 for moving to a bigger premises including building, flooring works and drainage, and the purchase and installation of a 20 barrel plant, casks, computer equipment and software.
• Millers of Speyside Limited, Highlands, are awarded £83,660 for purchasing and installing an on site incinerator plant and a stunning box for its cattle/pig line.
• Simon Howie Butchers Limited, Perthshire, are awarded £206,294 for the construction of a dry goods store, and engineering support facility, a cold store with blast freezing and a centralised packing room.
• Border Meats Limited, are awarded £305,000 to centralise operations in Lockerbie and create a more efficient and sustainable abattoir, butchery and sales facility.
• Katy Rodger’s Artisan Dairy, Stirlingshire, are awarded £16,425.12 for the purchase and installation of an external walk in fridge and freezer, a commercial fruit cooking machine and a pot filler and conveyor.
• Scottish Islands Abattoir Association, the Islands, are awarded £43,400 a feasibility study to consider how the economic sustainability of the abattoirs could be ensured and their levels of operation improved and increased.