The Girvan grain distillery complex was built in Ayrshire in the Lowlands in 1963 by owners William Grant & Sons to supply grain whisky for their blended scotch whisky brands.  Grant’s supply of grain whisky had been threatened by dominant producers Distillers Company Ltd (DCL) after Grant’s broke a gentlemen’s agreement not to promote whisky on television with ads for their Standfast blend.

Girvan now has an annual capacity of well over 100 million litres per year, with three pairs of columns famously including a multi-pressure-system (MPS) installed in 1992 called No. 4 Apps (short for Apparatus).  MPS uses vacuum technology to enable a lower-temperature distillation. The original Coffey still from 1963 (known as No.1 Apps), ran until a few years ago.