Up to 31 employees are at risk following the decision by producers the Edrington Group to put its Tamdhu distillery and maltings in Aberlour in care and maintenance from April.

It will then concentrate production at its three core distilleries - The Macallan in Craigellachie, Glenrothes in Rothes and Highland Park in Orkney - in a bid to ride out the global economic downturn.

The company is currently consulting employees across its operations who would be affected by the proposals.

The news was not entirely unexpected but was still a real blow to the community, said Speyside Glenlivet councillor Michael McConnachie.

"There have been rumours circulating for a while. Over its history, the whisky industry has had a lot of peaks and troughs in the past and is at a low point at the moment. I would like to think it will pick up again," he said.

"My hope is that those being paid off get the best possible support and that those wanting to take early retirement get first chance."

The whole Scottish whisky industry has been hit by the recession, according to Edrington, adding that while its brands continue to perform well in international markets and it is confident about returning to growth in the medium term, the current economic downturn has flattened sales over the past year.

The downturn has required Edrington to "rebalance its distillation capacity" and the changes being proposed will result in a net reduction of up to 31 jobs across its operational sites.

Consultation has begun and Edrington, which has invested over £42 million in its Scottish operations in the last five years, said it was hopeful that any job losses required could be achieved through voluntary measures.

Edrington employs around 2,200 people world-wide, with 840 in Scotland.

Following the news of job losses by Whyte & Mackay and Diageo in recent months, there has been concern that other companies such as the Edrington Group would find themselves having to make decisions on cutting production and jobs, said Moray MP Angus Robertson.

"Unfortunately, that concern has proved correct with the news of the mothballing of Tamdhu Distillery and other job cuts from the company. The economic situation has clearly dented sales this year across the whole whisky sector and in this case just over 30 jobs are at risk, a number of which are in Moray," he said.

"It is important that those who are affected by these job losses are given as much support as possible in the coming weeks and months to help find alternative employment before the cuts occur in April next year."

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