Jack Daniel’s announces $100m distillery expansion

Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey will expand its Lynchburg distillery with over US$100 million funding from owner Brown-Forman as part of the largest expansion scheme in the brand’s history.

The investment will include additional stills, barrel warehouses and infrastructure to support expanding operations. A second production building will be built on the same grounds as the current distillery site in order to mitigate capacity pressures faced.

“It’s a good time in the whiskey industry, and our future prospects look really good,” said Jeff Arnett, master distiller at Jack Daniels. “We don’t want to find ourselves without any additional throttle, if we need it.

“This will basically secure our ability to give Jack Daniel’s to all of those who want Jack Daniel’s for years to come.”

The expansion will have access to the same source of cave spring water used to make the whiskey to “ensure that every drop of Jack Daniel’s is made in Lynchburg, from the same water source”, as Arnett states.

Parent company Brown-Forman reported that Jack Daniel’s has experienced volume growth for 21 years and that its global net sales increased by 9% in the last year. Since 2004, global cases have risen from about 7.7 million cases to nearly 11 million cases last year.

Work on the expansion will begin this autumn and is expected to be completed within two years. It is thought that the expansion will create around 90 new jobs at the distillery which currently employs 435 full-time workers.

According to Brown-Forman, Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey has grown volume for 21 consecutive years and the Jack Daniel’s family of brands grew global net sales by 9% in the last fiscal year.

It was announced in June that Jack Daniel’s was the prominent driving force behind Brown-Forman’s sales growth.