Brown-Forman Shake Up Amid Sales Slump Reaches Scotland

By Richard Thomas

Brown-Forman is one of the major players in American spirits. Founded in 1870 by George Garvin Brown and originator of the brand Old Forester, the Louisville-based company is technically publicly traded, but in practical reality is family owned, with a majority of shares still held by Brown’s descendants. The company also owns Jack Daniel’s, currently the US’s second largest whiskey brand, along with Woodford Reserve; the BenRiach trio of Scots malt distilleries; as well as holdings in tequila, champagne and other drinks.

Despite some diversification, the company is firmly rooted in whiskey, and whiskey has been in a sales slump worldwide since late 2024. This slump compounded ongoing problems at Brown-Forman, who saw their crown jewel of Jack Daniel’s slip from its long-held spot as the top-selling American whiskey brand and the second-ranked whiskey brand globally. They lost that coveted place to Jim Beam in 2023, and the loss was consolidated by Beam widening their lead in 2024.

Last week, the company announced “a series of strategic initiatives to position the company for continued growth in the dynamic global spirits market,” which actually meant a slate of lay-offs, internal reshuffles and shutterings typical of the measures major companies undertake to please investors on Wall Street. Among the measures:

• Four new faces in the middle executive ranks at the company.
• Massive lay-offs encompassing 12% of the company’s total workforce, some 5,400 employees.
• The closure of the Brown-Forman cooperage in Louisville. This closure accounts for 210 of the aforementioned employees losing their jobs. It also ends Brown-Forman’s long-held standing as the only American whiskey-maker who had vertically integrated coopering into their company. Until the Bourbon Boom reached its peak years, the Louisville cooperage made all the barrels for Jack Daniel’s, Old Forester and Woodford Reserve.
  Brown Forman built a new coopering complex in Alabama specifically to meet the needs of Jack Daniel’s, but then sold it to Independent Stave Company in 2024 amid rumors of poor management at the facility. With this new closure in 2025, all Brown-Forman barrel production will be outsourced.

These measures are predicted by the company to save them $80 to $90 million annually.

Now word has come today from Scotland: Glenglassaugh Distillery, one of the previously mentioned BenRiach trio of malt distillers, that the entire production staff has been laid off. This news comes predominately from members of the (former) Glenglassaugh team. Brown-Forman has yet to make a public announcement as to their intentions for Glenglassaugh or the other two Scotch distilleries they own. Contacting Brown-Forman to confirm the details has proved difficult, since many of the existing press contacts relied upon by The Whiskey Reviewer were told to clear their desks at the end of last week.

Shuttering a distillery is a common cost-cutting measure in the Scotch industry. Glenglassaugh, to cite its own history as an example, was closed from 1986 to 2008.