Posted on 08/06/2025 3:03:09 AM PDT by dennisw
A wave of American whiskey distilleries are collapsing under the weight of mounting debt, falling demand, and rising global tensions — signaling a crisis for the once-booming industry.
The latest to fall the owner of the Luca Mariano Distillery in Danville, Kentucky, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month with an estimated $25 million in debt.
Owner Francesco Viola said he hopes the business can 'emerge successfully, ideally with the support of its employees, customers, community and creditors.'
Luca Mariano follows the high-profile collapse of Garrard County Distilling, a $250 million independent Kentucky distillery that was placed into receivership and shut down in April after defaulting on debt.
And in late 2023, the iconic Kentucky Owl, founded in 1879, also filed for bankruptcy — citing slumping sales and a crippling cyberattack that halted operations.
Sales are drying up as price-sensitive and health-conscious American consumers pull back on spirits.
Campari-owned Wild Turkey saw an 8 percent decline in US sales during the first half of 2025, while Jack Daniel’s dropped 6 percent year-over-year.
In January, Jack Daniel's parent company Brown-Forman announced layoffs affecting 12 percent of its workforce and the closure of a major barrel-making facility in Louisville.
Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey also fell 6 percent year-over-year, its latest report revealed.
'This has been an extremely difficult time for distillers across the country who are dealing with increased production costs, a slowdown in spirits sales in the U.S. marketplace, and a significant disruption to spirits exports due to threat of tariffs and retaliation related to ongoing trade disputes,
Another major hurdle for this industry is that Canada, the US spirits second largest export market, is keeping whisky off its store shelves in protest at Trump's punitive trade policies against the nation.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Canucks are switching to wine and coolers
https://madeinca.ca/alcohol-consumption-statistics-canada/
Cannabis up, alcohol, beer and wine mostly down
https://retail-insider.com/bulletin/2025/03/governments-earn-15-7b-from-alcohol-cannabis-statistics-canada/
I should start writing a substack!!!!
Despite a 2.5% increase in the price of alcoholic beverages from March 2023 to March 2024, total alcohol sales dropped by 0.1%, totaling $26.2 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024. On a volume basis, sales of alcohol fell by 3.8%, marking the largest volume decline on record since Statistics Canada began tracking alcohol sales in 1949. In total, 2,988 million litres of alcohol were sold in 2023/2024. On average, Canadians of legal drinking age consumed the equivalent of 8.7 standard alcoholic beverages per week, down from 9.2 in the previous fiscal year, explained Statistics Canada
Recreational cannabis sales saw a significant rise of 11.6%, reaching $5.2 billion in 2023/2024. This growth, though slower than the previous year’s 15.8% increase, reflects continued consumer demand for cannabis products. The increase in cannabis sales occurred despite a 2.8% decrease in the price of cannabis products during the same period, according to Statistics Canada.
Inhaled extracts emerged as the fastest-growing cannabis category, with a remarkable 31.4% increase in sales, accounting for over two-thirds of the overall $0.5 billion increase in cannabis sales
you’d drink to an ingrown toenail. - Fred Sanford. 😎
“Kids are into coolers. The distilleries should adapt by coming out a cooler variant of whiskies.”
What is a cooler but a mixed drink you would get in a bar? Dumbass coolers have no more alcohol than beer, because I see then sold next to beer in convenience stores. That have no liquor licenses.
Girls like them
I just got my bottle of 1792 12 Year Aged bourbon. Bourbon distilleries will just consolidate.
1792 12 Yr Bourbon
750ml
$65.99
___________
I prefer Jim Beam is the man!
Perhaps we need to bring back the era of “Mad Men,” when corporate management accommodated hard drinking men who had fought in WW II and Korea by sending drinks carts through the office starting at 11 AM. If nothing else, it would help to draw people back to the office.
This is the dirty underbelly of American capitalism especially the private equity part of it. Don't know how much of it affects these companies, but the usual pattern is pay a high price to buy up a company, load it up with debt while paying out to the insiders and then letting it go all while lowering quality to lower costs to make it look more attractive.
That’s exactly what the Romney’s do. Sell other company’s debts to one company and then let that company go bankrupt.
Wings are your local bar are a perfect example of this. The raw cost of chicken wings is under $2 a lb, back to and lower in some cases than pre Covid, yet most bars are charging $16 to $20 for 12 wings, (about 1.5 lbs worth).
The supply chain and pricing issues are long gone, but the retail price remains insanely high. Literally charging more than an entree for these appetizers.
These days weed, edibles, vapes and mushrooms would have to be on that cart. Lolzzzz can you imagine working in an office reeking of marijuana smoke? Or next cubicle over he is tripping on mushrooms?
In Colorado, legal pot: $50+/ounce. Illegal weed, $10/ounce.
yes
Jim Beam
Chapter 11 bankruptcy is not a failure or collapse. It is a restructuring while under creditor protection. Many companies survive and emerge better off.
Things I see less of these days:
Purely unscientific of course.
Cigars
High end liquor
Harleys
Golf
Expensive restaurants
Things change.
The pendulum swings back and forth.
I'd also add that prescription anti-depressants and "mood stabilizers" are replacing a lot of drinking.
Now where does the credit come from to create the debt - well that is what the Feral Reserve does when it engages in quantitative easing or whatever they call it when they provide lots of low interest money for selected insiders.
“The supply chain and pricing issues are long gone, but the retail price remains insanely high.”
Yep, absolutely. Nice to see someone else intelligent enough to see the markup/price discrepancies. Whole lot of folks out there with stupid written on their foreheads.
The cost of a alcoholic beverage at a restaurant is ridiculous anymore. Add that to the cost of the meal and the tip and you get set back a lot to go out for dinner.
The average Americans are hurting financially and that means doing without.
It is not Trump’s fault, but things are still overpriced and very few have recovered from Joe Biden’s damage to the country.
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