Macallan Distillery Production Area

Flowcrete UK has worked alongside the international spirits group Edrington and the architectural practise Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, to provide floor finishes for a new, £140 million distillery that will be producing the renowned single-malt whisky brand, The Macallan.

The building marks a revolution in distillery design, merging The Macallan’s centuries old traditions with cutting-edge architecture. A central ethos behind the site was that it would allow visitors to see each step of the process – and do so while surrounded in a sustainable and luxurious environment. This meant creating a facility that would not only meet all the challenging industrial concerns inherent to making some of the world’s best whisky, but to do so while constantly conveying an inviting, on-brand aesthetic.

This was a particular challenge for the floor area in the four production cells that house the copper stills, mash tuns, stainless steel washbacks, distillation and fermentation vessels, pipes and assorted distillery apparatus. The flooring in these areas will likely face spillages of hot, corrosive by-products alongside point loading from heavy equipment, intensive cleaning, impacts and more.

To ensure that the surface would maintain a functional, visually attractive finish for the long term, 5,570 m² of the polyurethane concrete screed Flowfresh HF LT was applied. This robust, chemical resistant system would be able to withstand the onsite conditions and provide additional benefits such as easy cleanability, slip resistance and an in-built antibacterial agent.

A sleek grey colour was chosen to match the production area’s industrial aesthetic. The application of the Flowfresh HF LT around the intricate pipework was tricky, but thanks to the easy applicability of Flowfresh HF LT, the floor was completed on schedule and to The Macallan’s exacting standards.

Visitors to The Macallan’s whisky tour would not just experience Flowcrete UK flooring in the production areas, as its screeds and decorative finishes were also applied across many other parts of the site.