Jack Daniels toasts rising demand with $100m new distillery in the US
THE MAKERS of Jack Daniel’s whiskey will spend more than $100m to increase production to meet the growing thirst for the world-famous Tennessee whiskey.
Jack Daniel’s maker Brown-Forman will build a new distillery, adding stills, barrel warehouses and related infrastructure, to boost production at its Lynchburg, Tennessee factory, the oldest registered distillery in the United States.
“This is the first time since prohibition that we are going to be constructing a distillery from grassroots,” master distiller Jeff Arnett told Reuters.
Sale, production and transportation of alcohol was banned in the US from 1920 to 1933. The new facility will increase the production of the flagship Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 brand by 15-20 per cent from more than 11m cases per year currently, said Arnett, who is the seventh master distiller in the company’s history.
Global sales of the Jack Daniel’s family of brands grew by nine per cent in the last fiscal year, with international sales growth outpacing the US.