Distilleries and ownershipData study
The scale of Scotch whiskydistillery capacity in 2026
Scotland’s 153 distilleries with a stated capacity can make 851 million litres of pure alcohol a year, and the two biggest account for 26% of it.
851m litres of pure alcohol a year from 153 Scotch distilleries with a stated capacity; the two biggest make 26%
The 20 biggest Scotch distilleries
Stated capacity, litres of pure alcohol a year (not output). 153 of 158 have a figure.
Show as a table, with sources
| # | Distillery | Type | Owner | Litres a year | Share | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cameronbridge | grain | Diageo | 110,000,000 | 12.9% | WhiskyInvestDirect (profile pages) / … |
| 2 | Girvan | grain | William Grant & Sons | 110,000,000 | 12.9% | WhiskyInvestDirect / Scotch Whisky … |
| 3 | North British | grain | Lothian Distillers (Diageo / The Edrington Group) | 72,000,000 | 8.5% | WhiskyInvestDirect / Scotch Whisky … |
| 4 | Strathclyde | grain | Pernod Ricard | 39,000,000 | 4.6% | WhiskyInvestDirect / Scotch Whisky … |
| 5 | Invergordon | grain | Emperador Inc | 36,000,000 | 4.2% | WhiskyInvestDirect / Scotch Whisky … |
| 6 | Starlaw | grain | La Martiniquaise (COFEPP) | 25,000,000 | 2.9% | WhiskyInvestDirect / Scotch Whisky … |
| 7 | Glenfiddich | malt | William Grant & Sons | 21,000,000 | 2.5% | Our distillery records |
| 8 | Glenlivet | malt | Pernod Ricard | 21,000,000 | 2.5% | Our distillery records |
| 9 | Loch Lomond Grain | grain | Loch Lomond Group (Hillhouse Capital) | 18,000,000 | 2.1% | WhiskyInvestDirect / Scotch Whisky … |
| 10 | Macallan | malt | The Edrington Group | 15,000,000 | 1.8% | Our distillery records |
| 11 | Roseisle | malt | Diageo | 12,500,000 | 1.5% | Our distillery records |
| 12 | Ailsa Bay | malt | William Grant & Sons | 12,000,000 | 1.4% | Our distillery records |
| 13 | Glen Ord | malt | Diageo | 11,900,000 | 1.4% | Our distillery records |
| 14 | Teaninich | malt | Diageo | 10,200,000 | 1.2% | Our distillery records |
| 15 | Dalmunach | malt | Pernod Ricard | 10,000,000 | 1.2% | Our distillery records |
| 16 | Dalmore | malt | Emperador Inc | 9,000,000 | 1.1% | Our distillery records |
| 17 | Glen Moray | malt | La Martiniquaise (COFEPP) | 8,400,000 | 1% | Our distillery records |
| 18 | Glenmorangie | malt | Moet Hennessy (LVMH) | 7,100,000 | 0.8% | Our distillery records |
| 19 | Balvenie | malt | William Grant & Sons | 7,000,000 | 0.8% | Our distillery records |
| 20 | Caol Ila | malt | Diageo | 6,500,000 | 0.8% | Our distillery records |
| The smallest: | ||||||
| 153 | Dornoch | malt | Independent | 12,000 | under 0.1% | Our distillery records |
| 152 | Abhainn Dearg | malt | Independent | 20,000 | under 0.1% | Our distillery records |
| 151 | North Uist | malt | Independent | 50,000 | under 0.1% | Our distillery records |
| 150 | Strathearn | malt | Douglas Laing | 60,000 | under 0.1% | Our distillery records |
| 149 | Kythe | malt | Independent | 60,000 | under 0.1% | Our distillery records |
| 148 | Daftmill | malt | Independent | 65,000 | under 0.1% | Our distillery records |
| 147 | Levenbank | malt | Independent | 80,000 | under 0.1% | Our distillery records |
| 146 | Castletown Mill | malt | Independent | 80,000 | under 0.1% | Our distillery records |
| 145 | Reivers | grain | Marussia Beverages | 100,000 | under 0.1% | Scotch Whisky Industry Review 2024 … |
| 144 | Nc'nean | malt | Independent | 100,000 | under 0.1% | Our distillery records |
Every ranked distillery, worldwide, is in the capacity league. Not stated, so left out rather than counted as zero: Deerness, Drummygar, Inver House, Stirling and The Bothy.
Stated capacity by region
Partial totals: distilleries with a stated figure only. The Lowlands lead because most grain distilleries are there.
| Region | Litres a year | Share | Counted | Filter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lowland | 389,495,000 | 45.8% | 30 of 33 | |
| Speyside | 261,240,000 | 30.7% | 51 of 51 | |
| Highland | 155,902,000 | 18.3% | 44 of 46 | |
| Islay | 27,710,000 | 3.3% | 11 of 11 | |
| Islands | 14,789,000 | 1.7% | 14 of 15 | |
| Campbeltown | 2,050,000 | 0.2% | 3 of 3 |
Stated Scotch capacity by owner
Partial totals: distilleries with a stated figure only. Who owns which distillery: the ownership family tree.
Show as a table
| Owner | Litres a year | Share | Counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diageo | 235,925,000 | 27.7% | 31 of 31 |
| William Grant & Sons | 154,500,000 | 18.2% | 5 of 5 |
| Pernod Ricard | 110,700,000 | 13% | 13 of 13 |
| Lothian Distillers (Diageo / The Edrington Group) | 72,000,000 | 8.5% | 1 of 1 |
| Emperador Inc | 54,200,000 | 6.4% | 5 of 5 |
| La Martiniquaise (COFEPP) | 33,400,000 | 3.9% | 2 of 2 |
| Independent | 30,681,000 | 3.6% | 44 of 49 |
| Loch Lomond Group (Hillhouse Capital) | 23,800,000 | 2.8% | 3 of 3 |
| The Edrington Group | 23,100,000 | 2.7% | 3 of 3 |
| Bacardi | 22,100,000 | 2.6% | 5 of 5 |
| Other owners (20) | 90,780,000 | 10.7% | 41 of 41 |
When today's distilleries were founded
Surviving distilleries only, by original founding year (revived sites count from their first founding), so this is not a count of openings.
Operating distilleries
Their stated capacity today
Show as a table
| Decade | Operating | With a figure | Litres a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1760s | 1 | 1 | 500,000 |
| 1770s | 1 | 1 | 2,150,000 |
| 1780s | 1 | 1 | 2,450,000 |
| 1790s | 6 | 6 | 10,275,000 |
| 1800s | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1810s | 10 | 10 | 37,450,000 |
| 1820s | 18 | 18 | 185,140,000 |
| 1830s | 8 | 8 | 32,900,000 |
| 1840s | 5 | 5 | 21,300,000 |
| 1850s | 1 | 1 | 5,200,000 |
| 1860s | 1 | 1 | 2,200,000 |
| 1870s | 7 | 7 | 19,650,000 |
| 1880s | 5 | 5 | 100,100,000 |
| 1890s | 20 | 20 | 81,300,000 |
| 1900s | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1910s | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1920s | 1 | 1 | 39,000,000 |
| 1930s | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1940s | 1 | 1 | 3,000,000 |
| 1950s | 2 | 2 | 11,000,000 |
| 1960s | 9 | 8 | 169,900,000 |
| 1970s | 4 | 4 | 20,300,000 |
| 1980s | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1990s | 3 | 3 | 23,700,000 |
| 2000s | 4 | 4 | 12,745,000 |
| 2010s | 30 | 28 | 63,166,000 |
| 2020s | 20 | 18 | 7,760,000 |
Our figures against published ones
Published totals differ because they count different sites, include planned expansions or mix spirit volume with pure alcohol. We show both and keep our records unless re-verified.
| What | Ours | Published | Difference | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Scotch distilleries | 851,186,000 | 883,816,000 | Ours 3.7% lower | Ramsay Tavish, 'The Scale of Modern Scotch Whisky', Dramface, 27 April 2024. Dramface's figure includes expansions planned to 2025. |
| Malt distilleries | 441,086,000 | 441,616,000 | Matches | Ramsay Tavish, 'The Scale of Modern Scotch Whisky', Dramface, 27 April 2024. The same article's pre-2014 total (346,160,000) plus its added capacity (105,568,000) comes to 451,728,000, about 10 million more than its own stated total. |
| Grain distilleries | 410,100,000 | 442,200,000 | Ours 7.3% lower | Ramsay Tavish, 'The Scale of Modern Scotch Whisky', Dramface, 27 April 2024. Dramface gives a rounded figure. |
| Cameronbridge | 110,000,000 | 120,000,000 | Ours 8.3% lower | Gazetteer for Scotland, 'Cameronbridge Distillery' (undated). Stated as spirit produced, not as capacity in pure alcohol. |
| Cameronbridge | 110,000,000 | 136,000,000 | Ours 19.1% lower | Wikipedia, 'Cameronbridge distillery' (infobox) (undated). The infobox does not say whether this is litres of pure alcohol. |
| Glenfiddich | 21,000,000 | 21,000,000 | Matches | Ramsay Tavish, 'The Scale of Modern Scotch Whisky', Dramface, 27 April 2024. |
| Glenlivet | 21,000,000 | 21,000,000 | Matches | Ramsay Tavish, 'The Scale of Modern Scotch Whisky', Dramface, 27 April 2024. |
| Dalmunach | 10,000,000 | 10,000,000 | Matches | Ramsay Tavish, 'The Scale of Modern Scotch Whisky', Dramface, 27 April 2024. |
| InchDairnie | 4,000,000 | 4,000,000 | Matches | Ramsay Tavish, 'The Scale of Modern Scotch Whisky', Dramface, 27 April 2024. |
| Miltonduff | 5,800,000 | 16,000,000 | Ours 63.8% lower | Ramsay Tavish, 'The Scale of Modern Scotch Whisky', Dramface, 27 April 2024. Pernod Ricard said in 2022 that a new distillery beside the old one would add 10 million litres of alcohol a year, at full production by mid-2025. Our figure matches the size before that expansion. |
| Aberlour | 3,800,000 | 7,800,000 | Ours 51.3% lower | Pernod Ricard press release, 'Chivas Brothers invests in sustainable future of Scotch', 29 April 2022. Announced in 2022 for full production by mid-2025. Our figure matches the size before that expansion. |
Read on 23 October 2026; the quoted words are in the JSON download. Not used: Master of Malt blog, 'What is the largest whisky distillery in the world?' (undated). The page refused our request (HTTP 429) on 2026-10-23, so we could not check its figures and do not quote them.
Filter by region or type, or flip to the smallest. Switch views for regions, owners, founding decades and how our figures compare with published ones.
- Grain distilleries: 8 of 153 sites, 48% of capacity.
- More of today’s distilleries were founded in the 2010s (30) than in any other decade; they add 7% of capacity.
- Published figures for Miltonduff and Aberlour are 2.8 and 2.1 times ours, after expansions since 2022.
Source: Distilleries ranked by stated capacity (our interactive league). Updated 23 October 2026. Free to reuse with a link to this page.
About this data: method, downloads and sources
How we did it
Capacity is the stated annual capacity of a distillery in litres of pure alcohol: the volume of spirit counted as if it were 100% alcohol, so a 70cl bottle at 40% ABV holds 0.28 litres. It is what a distillery says it can make, not what it made. The figures come from our distillery records, which also feed Whiskipedia; where a record cites an outside source (often the Scotch Whisky Industry Review or WhiskyInvestDirect’s profiles), the table names it. Records carry no date of their own for each figure, so the date shown is the snapshot date.
Coverage. Operating Scotch distilleries only: active or temporarily closed. Planned and closed sites are left out. A distillery with no stated capacity is listed separately and left out of every total, never counted as zero, so all totals are partial and say how many distilleries they count. Regions follow our records, with the Islands shown apart from the Highlands.
Founding decade uses the year a distillery was first founded. A revived distillery (Port Ellen and Rosebank, for example) counts under its original founding, and capacity is today’s, so the decade chart shows when today’s capacity was first founded, not how capacity grew.
Published figures were read on the date shown and kept on file. Where they differ from ours we show both and do not change our records on the strength of one source.
This is a guide to the size of the industry, not buying advice.
Download the data
- Every operating Scotch distillery with stated capacity, owner and founding year (CSV)
- The full study data, including the comparison with published figures (JSON)
Free to reuse with a link to this page.
Sources
- Distilleries ranked by stated capacity (our interactive league)
- Ramsay Tavish, 'The Scale of Modern Scotch Whisky', Dramface, 27 April 2024
- Pernod Ricard, 'Chivas Brothers invests in sustainable future of Scotch', 29 April 2022
- Gazetteer for Scotland, 'Cameronbridge Distillery'
- Wikipedia, 'Cameronbridge distillery'
Prices are the shelf prices we recorded at UK retailers on the dates shown and change daily. Uisge Beatha compares prices; it does not sell whisky or give investment advice. Please enjoy whisky responsibly: drinkaware.co.uk.