{"id":364424,"date":"2025-12-22T11:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T11:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/364424\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T11:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T11:36:08","slug":"bourbon-maker-jim-beam-stops-production-at-kentucky-site-for-2026-food-drink-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/364424\/","title":{"rendered":"Bourbon maker Jim Beam stops production at Kentucky site for 2026 | Food & drink industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

The maker of Jim Beam bourbon whiskey will halt production at its main site in Kentucky<\/a> for all of 2026.<\/p>\n

The company said in a statement it would close its distillery in Clermont until it took the \u201copportunity to invest in site enhancements\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are always assessing production levels to best meet consumer demand and recently met with our team to discuss our volumes for 2026,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

It comes as whiskey distillers in the US face uncertainty around Donald Trump\u2019s trade tariffs, as well as declining rates of alcohol consumption.<\/a><\/p>\n

In October, the Kentucky Distillers\u2019 Association (KDA) trade body said there was a record amount of bourbon in warehouses across the state \u2013 more than 16m barrels.<\/p>\n

The KDA warned distillers faced a \u201ccrushing\u201d $75m (\u00a365m) in taxes on their inventory this year, as the state charges tax on ageing barrels of spirits.<\/p>\n

Jim Beam said it was assessing how it would use its workforce while it paused production and was in talks with its workers\u2019 union.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s other operations in Kentucky, including another distillery and its bottling and warehouse plants, would remain open next year. Its visitor centre in Kentucky will also stay open.<\/p>\n

Jim Beam is owned by the Japanese drinks group Suntory Global Spirits<\/a>, which employs more than 6,000 people around the world, with more than 1,000 people across its sites in Kentucky.<\/p>\n

Known for its celebrated single malt whiskies<\/a>, Suntory\u2019s brands also include Haku vodka and Sipsmith gin, as well as soft drinks Orangina and Lucozade. It acquired the US maker of Jim Beam in 2014 for $16bn, securing its status as one of the world\u2019s biggest spirits makers.<\/p>\n

In September, its chief executive, Takeshi Niinami, resigned from the company<\/a> after police raided his home as part of an investigation into suspected illegal supplements.<\/p>\n

Niinami, who has denied any wrongdoing, had joined Suntory in 2014, becoming the first executive from outside the founding family, after 12 years as chief executive of the convenience store<\/a> chain Lawson.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s tariffs have cast a shadow of uncertainty across the spirits industry this year. In March, some Canadian provinces pulled American spirits from stores as a retaliatory move against US tariffs on Canadian goods. Since then some provinces have resumed buying American alcohol.<\/p>\n

In the UK, whisky distillers are subject to a 10% tariff on goods exported to the US. The Scotch Whisky<\/a> Association has estimated that it costs the sector \u00a34m a week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The maker of Jim Beam bourbon whiskey will halt production at its main site in Kentucky for all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-364424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}