Distillers to close Maltings
This report published in the Aberdeen Evening Express on 19th September 1980, confirms the end of malting at both, Glen Albyn and Glen Mhor distilleries. Traditional malting had ended at each the sites, with Glen Mhor ending floor malting in June 1949. In comparison, Glen Albyn did not make that move towards Saladin boxes until 1961. It is interesting to see that both distilleries are suggested to be amongst some of the smallest maltings owned by Scottish Malt Distillers. Glen Mhor was certainly blighted by a limitation in its original design, highlighted by subsequent upgrades - while the onsite maltings remained untouched. In fact, we know through research and justification for the Saladin Boxes at Glen Mhor, that Glen Albyn had to step in on a regular basis to provide malting capacity support. Moving to a more mechanical means, reduced the expected burden on labour costs, which would have involved hiring a new team to work the floors. In this 1980 report, unfortunately 14 men acros