Crown Royal bottling facility to close
Diageo will shut its Crown Royal bottling facility in Ontario by February 2026 as part of its cost-saving Accelerate programme.
The site, in Amherstburg, Ontario, is one of the plants Diageo uses to bottle Canadian whisky Crown Royal.
Diageo also has bottling and distillation facilities in Gimli, Manitoba, and Valleyfield, Quebec, alongside its Canadian headquarters and warehouse operations in the Greater Toronto Area.
Going forward, Crown Royal bottles designated for Canada and non-US export markets will be bottled at the Valleyfield plant.
Diageo noted the move would improve its North America supply chain and position it best for long-term sustainable growth. This includes shifting some Crown Royal volumes to be closer to consumers in the US.
Diageo maintained that the whisky will continue to be mashed, distilled and aged in Canada, just as it has been since 1939.
Marsha McIntosh, Diageo’s president of North America supply, said: “We appreciate our dedicated Amherstburg employees for their contributions to Diageo and the Crown Royal brand.
“This was a difficult decision, but one that is crucial to improving the efficiency and resiliency of our supply chain network.”
“All Crown Royal will be mashed, distilled, and aged at our Canadian facilities, just as it has been for nearly a century, and will continue to be the great whisky our consumers know and love. We are committed to continuing our support for the community during this transition.”
The Spirits Business has reached out to Diageo for a comment on the number of jobs that will be impacted.
The company did say, however, that it would support impacted employees and work with Canadian general trade union Unifor to assist its unionised employees.
Diageo is looking to trim approximately US$625m in savings over the next three years, which will include some job cuts, its interim CEO Nik Jhangiani confirmed at a recent media briefing.
The company launched its cost-saving programme Accelerate in May to help deliver this.
Earlier this year, Diageo announced it would no longer be bringing new brands into the Distill Ventures accelerator programme. Diageo’s exit from the programme led to 13 redundancies at Danish whisky distillery Stauning.
Crown Royal was a stand out performer for Diageo in the company’s preliminary full-year 2025 results, with sales up by 3.8% in the US.
A chocolate-flavoured whisky for the brand was released last week.
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