[2] Outline planning permission was given in November 1970,[3] followed by approval of the DCL site in February 1971 by the Secretary of State for Scotland.

A plant at Markinch closed in 1983, with bottling being moved to Banbeath, with the loss of 340 workers while 220 were transferred to Leven.

In 2023 Diageo partnered with E.ON and Emtec energy to build Scotland's largest private wire ground-mounted solar farm with 8,000 panels on an area the size of eight football pitches adjacent to the Global Supply Centre and will generate up to 22% of the site’s annual electrical demand, and up to 60% in the summer months.

Its purpose is to future-proof Diageo’s Scotch whisky business, by finding new flavours and tweaking processes to improve efficiencies.

Leven’s distilling team work closely with Diageo’s blenders to experiment with flavours throughout the process, from milling at different settings, playing with different barley varieties, yeasts and heavily roasted malts, and moving cut points.

[14] While its focus today is to experiment with processes and flavour innovation in Scotch whisky, Leven also distils sake for Diageo’s Jinzu line, the only product to be regularly produced at the distillery.