The £150 million investment in redeveloping the Royal Elizabeth Yard industrial estate at Milton Farm Road in Dalmeny will go towards 40 new bonded warehouse buildings which will accommodate 80,000 sq metres of regulatory compliant maturation space together with associated disgorging and ancillary accommodation.

Jonathan Sutton, of Lewis Sutton acting on behalf of Royal Elizabeth Bond, said: “This much-needed facility will provide a key piece of infrastructure to the Scotch whisky industry within easy reach of blending and bottling halls in the Central Belt and principal UK and overseas distribution routes.”

The developer also said: “Our emerging proposals seek to respond to significant market demand for bonded and maturation warehouse accommodation in central Scotland.

“The ongoing expansion of the whisky industry has left the market with a shortage of accommodation, with particular impacts for smaller, independent distillers.”

It added: “In addition, the increasing challenges that the industry is facing, regarding stricter regulations relating to the storage of alcohol, combined with the increasing constraints of existing sites, has led to there being significant demand for purpose-built and regulatory compliant warehouse accommodation.

“As such, our emerging proposals present an opportunity to provide a key piece of infrastructure for the Scotch whisky industry which contributes £5.5 billion in gross value added to the UK economy and supports over 42,000 jobs.”