More than 50 of the world’s leading distillers and spirit blenders visited O-I Alloa on Monday last week to see the improvements made to the plant by O-I’s recent €30 million investment.
The world’s most experienced and skilled distillers were in Scotland to attend the World Distilled Spirits Conference, organised by the Institute of Brewing and Distilling. It was held in Glasgow from Monday 8 – Thursday 11 September.
“The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Future Challenges, New Solutions’ and new solutions are precisely what they found at Alloa,” says plant manager Alan Hunter.
“The plant tour showed delegates how O-I’s recent €30 million investment supports the Scottish spirits industry by offering faster product development and increased flexibility in terms of the size, colour and decoration of the bottles we produce.”
Scotch whisky is a £4 billion industry which exports around the world and 95% of the Alloa plant’s output is delivered to customers and filled in Scotland.
On Thursday 11, Paul McLavin, Multi-national Account Manager, Spirits for O-I Europe presented a paper to the conference to demonstrate how innovation in glass enhances brand image, product protection and sustainability.
O-I is the only truly global maker of glass packaging, so many of the audience took ideas home to countries and companies which already use O-I glass.
