Coopers Have New Technology Over A Barrel

Cutting edge technology is being used to make traditional barrels for the whisky industry.

The new systems are being used at a £10 million new cooperage near Alloa in Clackmannanshire.

Owners Diageo said the systems at their Cambus plant have never been used before in a cooperage and would improve the working lives of the coopers.

The 40 coopers at the new plant will make 250,000 casks a year.

Traditionally the 188lbs barrels were lifted by hand into the kiln to be fired and sealed.

The Diageo team worked closely with engineering firm CI Logistics to design conveyors for moving the casks around the cooperage between the hand-craft elements of the process.

Similar systems are used in car factories around the world and the company said the result was the world's most "innovative cooperage".

But Grain Distilling Director Richard Bedford said machinery would never replace men when it comes to coopering.

He said: "We're investing heavily in apprentices, we've had 16 apprentices here in the last five years, we've built an apprentice school into the cooperage here where we've currently got eight apprentices training at the moment.

"We are determined to keep the craft and skill of coopering alive, that's very important to us."

Callum Bruce, 51, who been a cooper for 35 years and said he was already feeling the difference.

He said: "I'm not any youngster and the limbs are getting a bit sore now, and I think the machinery helps that aspect of things.

The casks built by the coopers will be filled with whisky and stored in the bonded warehouses that stand alongside the cooperage. It is the largest bond in Europe and already holds 3 million casks.

The new Cambus cooperage was officially opened by the Earl of Wessex, an Honorary Member of the Incorporation of Coopers.