Diageo cuts 900 jobs, closes distillery

LONDON: Diageo PLC, the world's biggest spirits maker, said on Thursday it is cutting 900 jobs as it shutters a distillery and packaging plant as part of a cost-cutting restructure of operations in Scotland.

Diageo said that the restructuring, which includes closing one of the company's oldest distilleries and its related cooperage, will trim costs by some 40 million pounds ($66 million) in 2012.

The company said that the job cuts, to be made over the next two years, will be partly offset by the creation of around 400 new jobs through the expansion of another Scottish packing plant and a new cooperage.

Diageo Scotland Managing Director Bryan Donaghey said that the plans were necessary to secure the company's business in a competitive global market.

``These decisions have been extremely difficult to take,'' Donaghey said. ``We have only reached them after an exhaustive review of all the possible alternatives.''