USA, TX & TN: Diageo halts whisky production at two distilleries in the US

British alcohol conglomerate Diageo has temporarily halted whisky production at its Balcones and George Dickel distilleries, The Spirits Business reported on September 24.

The pause has resulted in the loss of 17 jobs at the Balcones distillery in Waco, Texas, while staffing at Dickel's Cascade Hollow distillery in Tullahoma, Tennessee, remains unaffected for the time being.

A 2011 article reported that the George Dickel distillery was responsible for 33 employees. According to online estimates, Balcones had a staff of between 27 and 51 prior to this week's layoffs.

Diageo says all team leaders at Balcones will remain in their current positions, including head distiller Jared Himstedt, blender Emma Crandall, blending manager Gabriel RiCharde, brand education manager Alex Elrod and national brand ambassador Charlie McRae. Both facilities will remain open to the public for tours and tastings.

“Every year we run standard temporary slowdowns or shutdowns across our operations to support our efficiency and productivity goals," a spokesperson for Diageo North America told The Spirits Business.

“Since we are ahead of schedule with the volume we produce at the site, this year we decided to temporarily pause our distilling operations and barrel-filling activity through June 2026."

“During this time, employees will work on strategic projects, conduct trainings to continue building capabilities and maintenance processes to position our sites for a successful start of our next fiscal year.”

Dickel and Balcones are well-regarded within the American whiskey community. George Dickel is the more historic of the two, having opened the doors of its original distillery in 1878. Balcones, meanwhile, was founded in 2008 by Chip Tate, purportedly becoming the first state-made Texas whisky on the market since Prohibition.

The closures are the latest in a string of cutbacks and layoffs across Diageo's multi-billion-dollar spirits portfolio. Initially limited to lesser-known names like Pampero Rum and Safari Liqueur, the spending cuts have since expanded to some of the company's best-selling brands.

At the end of August, Diageo announced the closure of a Crown Royal whisky bottling facility in Amherstburg, Ontario. The move provoked a sharp reaction from Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who implied that province-owned liquor stores may boycott Diageo products in the foreseeable future.

Months earlier, the company paused construction of a CA $245 million (US $175.7 million) Crown Royal distillery in the St. Clair Township of Canada. Since the beginning of the year, the conglomerate has also announced temporary production pauses at Roe & Co, its sole Irish whiskey distillery, and at Diageo Lebanon, a 72,000-square-foot Kentucky facility responsible for producing Bulleit Bourbon.

Diageo is best known internationally as the owner of Guinness, Johnnie Walker, Captain Morgan, Baileys and Don Julio. The company reached a four-year low stock price at the beginning of last summer, precipitating the current string of cutbacks likely to continue in months to come.