Two weeks after the news arrived that Brown-Forman was laying off 12 percent of its global workforce and selling its Louisville cooperage, there is some more bad news to report. According to an Instagram post by one of its employees, scotch distillery Glenglassaugh is shutting down production at least through the end of this year due to what he calls “the decline in the whisky industry and a change in the corporations [sic] activities.” We reached out to Brown-Forman today to confirm this news, and a representative said this marks the beginning of the incorporation of “silent seasons” into the production model.
Glenglassaugh has a long history dating back to 1874, but it remains one of the lesser-known distilleries amongst scotch whisky drinkers here in America—and not due to a lack of very good whisky, it should be noted. It’s located in the Highland coastal town of Portsoy, where the stillhouse opens up to a beautiful view of the scenic Sandend Bay. The distillery has a sort of checkered history of stops and starts with many shutdowns along the way, the most recent of which was in 1986. Nearly 20 years later, a Russian company bought it and started making whisky again there, and in 2013 Glenglassaugh joined forces with Benriach and the Glendronach as part of the Benriach Distillery Co. In 2016, Brown-Forman acquired all three distilleries and have been revamping and re-releasing their whisky lineups over the course of the past ten years. The core range relaunched in 2023 with three new expressions—12 Year Old, Portsoy, and Sandend—and last spring was the release of the ultra-aged (and ultra-expensive) Serpentine Coastal Cask Collection.
The worker who posted the news to social media, (now former) Glenglassaugh distillery production operator Tijay Salhotra, went on to say that while his role has become redundant, the distillery is not closing for good and “should restart towards the end of the year.” A spokesperson for Brown-Forman confirmed the news about production halting, but said that the 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,” she told Robb Report, explaining that this will optimize resources. “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.”
As we’ve reported over the past few months, the whiskey industry overall has been facing some serious challenges, both here in the U.S. and abroad, with younger people drinking much less, profit margins and sales from major corporations like Brown-Forman and Diageo on the decline, and the looming threat of the reimposition of Trump’s tariffs, which could set off a new whiskey trade war. Ultimately, the changes at Glenglassaugh seem like result of these factors, and possibly a lack of demand for the distillery’s whisky, at least in comparison to its sister distilleries. We will update you if there is any further news about this, and Brown-Forman’s whisky operations overall.
