Diageo (Campaign against Closures)

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 5:53 pm on 2 September 2009.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Tricia Marwick Tricia Marwick Scottish National Party 5:53, 2 September 2009

I congratulate my good friend Willie Coffey on securing the debate tonight and on the commitment and leadership that he has shown to his constituents in his determination to secure the Johnnie Walker jobs in Kilmarnock.

As I said earlier to the cabinet secretary, the task force of local politicians, local authorities, Scottish Enterprise and the trade unions has worked extremely hard in a short period of time to maximise the campaign to persuade Diageo to stay in Kilmarnock and Glasgow. However, as the constituency MSP for the Diageo plants in Leven and Cameron Bridge, I have a duty no less than Willie Coffey's to ensure that those plants have a long-term and sustainable future and I know that he understands that.

No one wants to see any jobs lost anywhere in Scotland, but my first priority is my constituency. I was grateful for the cabinet secretary's assurances this afternoon about the future of the Leven and Cameron Bridge facilities. However, there is real concern about the long-term future in Leven if all the promised investment is to be switched from Leven to Kilmarnock, as the task force is reported to propose. Diageo in Leven employs 500 people and is the largest employer in the area. Cameron Bridge has been producing whisky on the same site for almost 200 years. It is not some fly-by-night operation that has just come in from nowhere—it has been there for 200 years. Cameron Bridge is close to Windygates and at one point it employed practically the whole of Windygates. My friend Councillor David Alexander from Windygates is the first person in his family for almost 150 years who has not worked at Cameron Bridge. We therefore have a whisky heritage, too, and it is important that that is recognised.

Diageo in Leven and Cameron Bridge also has a loyal workforce. Leven houses 17 production lines, five of which are dedicated to whisky. As Ted Brocklebank said, the base product of Johnnie Walker whisky is old Cameron Brig, which is almost impossible to buy anywhere round about the constituency. The remainder of the lines in Leven—this is very important—are dedicated to bottling white spirit, including Gordon's gin, Smirnoff vodka, Captain Morgan rum and Tanqueray, and another 135 Diageo product lines. I understand the desire to keep jobs in Kilmarnock, which is the home of Johnnie Walker, the leading brand of Scottish whisky. However, it is essential that Diageo continues to invest in the Leven plant.

I support the desire to bottle all whisky in Scotland, but I also support the workers in Leven. Some of the arguments that are being used in the campaign leave Leven in a very vulnerable position, given the range of other national drinks that are bottled there. Leven won those products against internal competition from other Diageo companies around the word; it won because the productivity is high there and, more important, investment has been put into the plant. In addition, the workforce is first class. Diageo must continue to put in investment to secure and improve the existing lines, or we run the risk in the long term that the lines and jobs in Leven could be lost not just to somewhere else in Scotland but overseas.

I appreciate the cabinet secretary's comments today, but I urge him to be careful with the task force proposals in case Leven is disadvantaged by them. Like Kilmarnock, Levenmouth is an area of high unemployment. We know what it is like to lose jobs and what it was like when the mines shut down and the shipyard shut down. We have one of the highest unemployment rates in Scotland. We have three generations of people who have never worked. We need to ensure a long-term, sustainable future for Diageo in Leven and Cameron Bridge. My constituency of Central Fife has the third-lowest average wage of any constituency in Scotland. It is imperative that we keep and sustain jobs. The long-term sustainability of Leven is imperative, and I am happy to work with the cabinet secretary or anybody else to assure it.