Bourbon maker Jim Beam halts production at main distillery for a year

The maker of the favored Jim Beam bourbon whiskey says it should halt manufacturing at its essential web site in Kentucky for all of subsequent yr.The distillery will keep closed whereas the agency takes “the chance to spend money on web site enhancements,” it advised to the BBC in an announcement on Sunday.”We’re all the time assessing manufacturing ranges to greatest meet shopper demand and lately met with our crew to debate our volumes for 2026.”Distillers in Kentucky – well-known for its bourbon – face uncertainty, partly, attributable to US President Donald Trump’s commerce insurance policies.The model is owned by Japanese drinks big Suntory International Spirits, which employs greater than 1,000 individuals throughout its websites in Kentucky.The agency mentioned its different operations within the state, together with a separate distillery and its bottling and warehousing crops, will proceed to function subsequent yr.Jim Beam additionally mentioned it’s assessing the way it will use its workforce in the course of the manufacturing pause and is holding talks with the employees’ union.In October, the Kentucky Distillers’ Affiliation (KDA) commerce physique mentioned the quantity of bourbon in warehouses throughout the state was at a document excessive of greater than 16 million barrels.In line with the affiliation, the barrels of bourbon, that are taxed by the state, have price distillers “a crushing” $75m (£56m) this yr.US distillers have confronted retaliatory import taxes on their items after Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” announcement in April noticed the US imposing tariffs on most nations world wide.”A lot of the growth during the last decade has been geared in the direction of international progress,” the KDA mentioned in October because it referred to as for a “for a speedy return to reciprocal, tariff-free commerce”.Commerce tensions between the US and Canada have additionally impacted gross sales of alcohol, with most Canadian provinces boycotting American spirits earlier within the yr.