USA: Diageo planning new distillery in Kentucky

Diageo has revealed plans to spend US$115 mln on a new distillery in the US state of Kentucky to capitalise on American whiskey’s surging popularity.

The company is proposing to build a 1.8 mln proof gallon distillery and six-barrel storage warehouses in Shelby County, it announced on May 29. Diageo said it expects to break ground on the 300-acre site in “the coming months” with an aim to having the distillery operational by “late 2016”.

The facility will produce a number of “current and future” of Diageo’s Bourbon and North American whiskey brands, the company said. The $115 mln investment will be over a three-year period.

The plans remain subject to approval by local government.

Earlier this year, the company became embroiled in a war of words with Jack Daniel's producer Brown-Forman over proposed changes to relax the rules on what defines a Tennessee whiskey.

30 May, 2014