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| Economy |
| Another bourbon distiller files for bankruptcy as sector collapses |
| 2025-12-31 |
| [Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The bourbon buzz is fading fast. Another American spirits maker has gone bust, adding to growing signs that the US whiskey and bourbon boom has sharply reversed. Ohio-based AM Scott Distillery, which filed for bankruptcy on December 22, is the latest casualty in an industry struggling with falling demand at home and overseas. The downturn has been worsened by a Canadian backlash against US tariffs that has specifically targeted American bourbon. Founded in 2022 in Troy, Ohio, AM Scott produces gin, vodka and a range of bourbon and rye whiskeys. The company says it will continue operating while it restructures and cuts costs. Its collapse comes just a week after Jim Beam, one of America’s most famous bourbon brands, announced it would halt production for at least a year at its historic distillery in Clermont, Kentucky — a rare retreat for a nearly 230-year-old name. Together, the moves highlight a perfect storm battering the American whiskey industry. For years, distillers raced to expand production, betting that demand for bourbon would keep climbing at home and abroad. Instead, Americans are drinking less, younger consumers are turning away from booze, and exports have been battered by trade retaliation, with Canada leading the backlash. Sales of American whiskey more than tripled between the early 2000s and the pandemic, fueled by cocktail culture and a lockdown-era buying frenzy. Distilleries expanded aggressively, laying down millions of barrels that must age for years before they can be sold. But that gamble is catching up with them. Kentucky alone now has 16 million barrels of bourbon aging in warehouses — more than triple what it was 15 years ago — just as Americans and others are buying less alcohol overall and retailers are sitting on excess stock. Industry data show American spirits exports fell 9 percent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2025, with US whiskey hit especially hard. The steepest drop came from Canada, once one of the industry’s most important markets, where exports collapsed by as much as 85 percent after trade tensions and retaliatory boycotts tied to policies under President Donald Trump. Other major export markets are also buying less. Shipments to the EU, the UK and Japan — which together account for the bulk of US spirits exports — have all fallen sharply this year, cutting off a key pressure valve for producers drowning in too much whiskey. Americans are also changing how they drink. Polls show people are consuming less alcohol than they have in decades, driven by health concerns, rising prices, and competition from alternatives like ready-to-drink beverages, cannabis products and weight-loss drugs. Younger drinkers, especially Gen Z, are drinking less frequently and tending to buy higher-end bottles in smaller quantities. That shift is particularly painful for brands like Jim Beam, which still rely heavily on high-volume, lower-priced staples such as its White Label bourbon. The slowdown is not limited to Jim Beam. In recent months, Diageo paused distilling at its George Dickel facility in Tennessee. Brown-Forman, the maker of Jack Daniel’s, announced layoffs affecting about 12 percent of its workforce. Several smaller whiskey companies have entered receivership, and contract distillers say orders have fallen sharply as brands pull back. In August, Luca Mariano Distillery in Danville, Kentucky, filed for bankruptcy under the weight of roughly $25 million in debt. Earlier in the year, the $250 million Garrard County Distilling operation was shut down after it failed to pay its lenders. And in late 2023, the historic Kentucky Owl brand, founded in 1879, also collapsed, blaming falling sales and a cyberattack that brought production to a halt. Whiskey expert Fred Minnick said the move echoes previous boom-and-bust cycles the industry has seen before. ‘It’s a sad day for bourbon, to be honest with you,’ Minnick told the New York Times. ‘For this to happen is a real punch in the gut.’ Related: Bourbon 10/03/2025 MMA fighter beats Florida home intruder black and blue to protect teen nephew Bourbon 03/04/2025 Trade war escalates as US slaps steep tariffs on China, Canada, Mexico Bourbon 01/03/2025 A series of terrorist attacks in the USA Related: Whiskey 12/19/2025 The 'special relationship' is on hold. Trump is twisting the arms of the British Whiskey 12/03/2025 Rage-baiting influencer hands out MACHETES and other deadly weapons to homeless people in disturbing stunt Whiskey 11/16/2025 Pritzker's Angry Violent Left Kills Any Hope of Immigration Compromise |
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