Bids will be sought for Glen Moray Distillery in Elgin where 17 people are employed, and it is understood a condition of the sale will be that the staff transfer to the new owner.

Glenmorangie – owned by a French drinks company since 2005 – unveiled plans for a £45m investment programme including a new bottling plant. It will sell its bottling plant and cask warehousing site at Broxburn, West Lothian, to rival Diageo and build a state-of-the-art bottling plant in the Lothians along with a new headquarters in Edinburgh.

The group, which employs 420 people in Scotland, hopes jobs can be preserved.

Moray MSP Richard Lochhead said: "The visitor centre at Glen Moray opened in 2004 and numbers have grown year on year."

The sell-off of the popular brand was described by Mr Lochhead as a surprising move.

"The distillery is an important local business providing good employment and an important tourist attraction on the Whisky Trail. Given the success of the brand, I am sure that there will be keen interest in the whisky sector, and hopefully that will ensure that the workers at Glen Moray will be secure," he said.

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