New distillery won’t impact Gimli’s Crown Royal plant

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This article was published 11/03/2022 (1310 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Diageo PLC, the U.K.-based spirits giant, is investing $245 million in a new Crown Royal distillery in southern Ontario, but company officials say it will not impact its other Canadian production sites, including the one in Gimli, which has been making the award-winning whisky since 1968.

The new plant in St. Clair Township, Ont., will operate with 100 per cent renewable energy and will be carbon neutral and zero-waste to landfill from its direct operations.

Diageo, which operates in more than 180 countries and produces in more than 140 sites around the world, has stated that it is committed to reaching net-zero carbon across its direct operations by 2030 and is working to achieve net zero carbon across its entire supply chain by 2050 or sooner.

Additional Crown Royal production is needed because of strong sales increases — Crown Royal sales are up 12 per cent in the first half of Diageo’s fiscal year — but to achieve carbon-neutral status at the plant some kind of upgrade will be required at some point.

According to company figures, Canadian whisky made up 7 per cent of Diageo’s global net sales in the same period.

That’s no small feat in a company which produces some of the world’s biggest and most well-known alcohol brands, including Johnnie Walker Scotch, Captain Morgan Rum, Don Julio Tequila and Guinness Stout. Diageo also owns some of the most highly-regarded single malt scotch brands, including Lagavulin, Talisker and Oban.

Last year, Diageo announced plans to transition its Valleyfield, Que., manufacturing site to become carbon neutral by 2025, and it recently opened its first carbon-neutral whiskey distillery in North America in Lebanon, Kentucky, where is makes Bulleit Bourbon.

A company official told the Free Press, “We are developing site-by-site road maps as part of our action plan to reach net-zero carbon across direct operations and harnessing 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030, and this includes our operations in Gimli.”

The Gimli plant was built in the late 1960s, when the company was owned by Seagrams.

It is exclusively dedicated to distilling, maturing, blending and aging Crown Royal. Bottling, which is not done in Gimli, takes place in Diageo facilities in Valleyfield and Amherstburg, Ont.

Lynn Greenberg, the mayor of Gimli, said he does not believe that news of the new Ontario development will change the company’s commitment to Gimli.

“Diageo is has a huge economic impact in Gimli,” he said. “It underpins our tax base and inject lots into the local economy. Most of the employees live around the Gimli area.”

The company employs about 70 people in the town on the shores of Lake Winnipeg.

“It has been a very good economic driver for the area ever since it was built,” he said. “Small rural communities, we are all looking for industry, We are fortunate to have Diageo here.”

On a global scale, three of Diageo’s distilleries in Scotland have achieved carbon neutrality, and the company announced recently that it is also building a carbon neutral whisky distillery in China.

— With file from Toronto Star

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca