NewsScotch Whisky
Glenglassaugh Production Paused, Not Terminated
By Richard Thomas
A week ago, social media posts from an employee indicated that the production staff of Scotch malt distillery Glenglassaugh had been laid off, indicating that this Brown-Forman owned distillery was being shuttered. The news broke before Glenglassaugh’s parent company had made any announcement, and with spirits news already primed by the bankruptcy of Waterford, Mackmyra and Brown-Forman’s own substantial lay-offs, the social media announcements were widely reported.
Brown-Forman eventually followed with this statement:
Glenglassaugh Distillery is not shutting down. We are implementing a shared production model with Benriach, which will involve periods of production alongside occasional silent seasons, as has been the case traditionally. This allows us to optimize resources and expertise across both distilleries.This shared production model, and our ongoing demand planning process, resulted in a small number of redundancies. We deeply value the contributions of those impacted and are committed to providing support to them throughout this process.Our commitment to crafting exceptional whiskies remains as strong as ever, and we are grateful for the continued support and enthusiasm of our customers and markets worldwide.
In recent Brown-Forman financial statement, it was reported that the company’s non-American whiskey portfolio had seen returns fall by 22%. This is part of a wider sales slump for the world whiskey industry, including the Scotch whisky industry.
Brown-Forman insists that this means Glenglassaugh is not actually closing, while the statement’s reference to “shared production model with Benriach” suggests that the two distilleries will share a production team, which Glenglassaugh being fired up on a periodic basis. If that is what actually transpires, it would allow Glenglassaugh to remain pseudi-shuttered without developing a large gap in its inventory, as happened when the distillery was fully closed between 1986 and 2008. That protects the brand name and keeps its products in circulation.
Those observers who are familiar with the Scotch industry know its business history. Shuttering distilleries as surplus to requirements is a standard feature of the way the Scotch industry has worked for more than a century, with those distilleries often being reopened at some future date as demand rises and sales improve. Scotland is substantially different from the United States in that respect, where closed distilleries are often not maintained, rarely reopened, and when they are the work concerned is akin to building a new distillery in an old building.
So, the news that Glenglassaugh was shuttered in the traditional Scots manner was accurate. Tijay Salhotra’s post regarding the production staff being laid off said that the distillery was supposed to restart at the end of the year, which does not conflict with Brown-Forman’s follow-up statement.
As to whether that Glenglassaugh resumes production in autumn or winter 2025, only time will tell. Brown-Forman could choose to keep the distillery closed into 2026 or even longer, and that choice would not be inconsistent with the standard practice of the Scotch industry. The main point is that in Scotland, a shuttered distillery is not abandoned. Sooner or later, Glenglassaugh will reopen.
