Drink giant Diageo has reported over £2billion in profits over the last year, prompting union bosses to call for a halt to redundancies in Scotland.
The world famous whisky firm, who own 28 malt distilleries in Scotland including Blair Athol, Talisker, Oban, Dalwhinnie and Glenkinchie, reported huge profits in its 2021 Interim Results.
The company own big Scotch whisky names including Johnnie Walker, White Horse and Bell’s as well as popular brands including Tanqueray gin, Smirnoff vodka and Guinness.
Union GMB now say Diageo should be able to sustain jobs and conditions for all its workers despite announcing job cuts last month.
In December last year, the spirits giant announced it was to make 22 redundancies at its Speyside distilleries as a result of US tariffs on single malt impacting on Scotland’s whisky sector.
The job cuts were part of a 42% overall reduction in senior operator posts.
The news came as the UK government announced it would drop some of the tariffs imposed on specific US imports in a bid to end a 25% charge on imports of single malt to the US.
However, the company’s interim results for 2021, published on January 28, show eye-watering profits of £2.2billion and a 2% share dividend increase for the period ending December 31, 2020.
Responding to the profits, GMB union said the results show “it’s workers who will be first to pay the price for uncertainty”.
GMB Scotland Organiser Keir Greenaway said: “Even in the grip of a global pandemic Diageo can return a remarkably strong set of results, which should be more than able to sustain the jobs and conditions of its workers now and in future.
“The results also show that Scotland remains central to the Diageo success story, a large slice of the profit is driven by the products distilled, matured and bottled across the country.
“But the shareholder dividend increase will not be lost on our members, particularly in Scotland’s rural distillery communities who are being impacted by redundancies.
“Against the backdrop of a fifteen-month tariff war on single malts with the US, this signals that it’s workers who will be first to pay the price for uncertainty in the whisky and spirits sector.
“GMB is clear that moving forward, the priority should be investment in the workers and infrastructure that help generate these results, and not the pockets of shareholders.”
Diageo declined to comment.
