It’s no secret that whiskey has been kicking butt in sales recently – earlier this summer, we even discussed how some whiskey distilleries are having trouble keeping up with demand. Well, Jack Daniel’s is responding to this overwhelming popularity by investing in their future…a $100 million investment, to be exact.
The Jack Daniel’s parent company, Brown-Forman Corp., is putting big bucks on the line to increase production and storage capacity at its Jack Daniel Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee. The distillery stands in the same location where Jack Daniel founded it 150 years ago and the expansion is expected to take about 18 months. A small cave-spring hollow in Tennessee is responsible for providing the iron-free water that the company uses for whiskey making, so the expansion has to occur in that current location to keep the special Jack Daniel’s flavor.
This isn’t just big for fans of JD – it’s big for workers in Tennessee. The company will be adding more than 90 full time jobs over the next five years. Bill Hagerty, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, said the expansion underscores Tennessee’s No. 1 ranking for job growth in the Southeast.
“This company is an American brand but, more importantly, a Tennessee brand well recognized across the world, making it a global ambassador for our home state,” Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam said. “Jack Daniel’s is one of our most historic exports, and it helps us in our efforts to bring new Tennessee products to the world marketplace.”
We think that for the most part, this is probably going to be great. The expansion will help elevate Jack Daniel’s to an even more well-respected, international brand with strong American roots. They’re showing other whiskey distillers how it’s done. However, by expanding, they are also making it harder for those smaller distilleries to compete. We don’t want small brands to give up because they’re afraid of Jack.
We consider ourselves equal-opportunity drinkers, so even with the expansion of Jack Daniel’s, we’ll still drink a little bit of everything.