Johnnie Walker: Key Diageo brand Pic: © STV
Drinks firm Diageo says the expansion of the company's Fife bottling plant is under way, creating more than 400 new jobs.
According to Diageo, the Fife jobs will go some way to offset the loss of 700 jobs at the company's Port Dundas distillery in Glasgow and a packaging plant in Kilmarnock.
The £86million project in leven includes a new bottling hall and other new buildings and infrastructure for roads, drainage and utilities. Diageo says production at the new site will increase to around 30million cases a year.
An estimated 150 jobs will also be created for the plant's construction, building firm Rok said.
Andy Mallice, Rok's managing director for Scotland, said the Diageo work in Fife is a "welcome boost" to the construction industry and that the contract means his company can give work to local tradesmen.
"We feel very fortunate to be part of an investment-and-build programme that will help secure the long-term competitiveness of Scotland's drinks industry," he said.
"We recognise that the quality of our work and the standards of our operations at Leven as well as at other Diageo facilities have a long-term impact."
Diageo announced in July last year it will shut the sites by 2011, marking the end of nearly 200 years of distilling in Port Dundas.
The controversial "restructuring" is designed to save Diageo £40million a year.
A high-profile campaign was mounted to save the Diageo jobs. First Minister Alex Salmond joined thousands of protesters on a march through Kilmarnock last July to try to defend the jobs.
Diageo later rejected a a Scottish Government-backed proposal as an alternative to closing the bottling plant and a grain distillery in Glasgow.
The company said at the time the expansion of the Fife site will "offset" the loss of jobs elsewhere.
