As we have reported before, the American whiskey Industry is faced with difficult times. Young people drink less, large drinking companies are statement a decrease in income and dismissal employees and continuous unpredictability of the Trump administration price Politics has created a feeling of disarray. The last victim of this difficult environment is the craft distillery Whiskey to the westwho announced that he was going beyond the bankruptcy of chapter 11.
It comes after news that Diageo Withdrawn from the Distill Ventures accelerator program, which invested in Portland, Ore. American Single Malt Distillery in 2018 (StauningAnother distillery located in Denmark which was supported by Distill Ventures, dismissed about a quarter of its employees after the announcement). We contacted West CEO Thomas Mooney to comment, and confirmed that the deposit of Chapter 11 is linked to the departure of Diageo de Distill Ventures, but it is in active conversation with other investors. “In recent years, we have built a business to compete and win on a market very different from the one we have today,” he said Robb report. “If we had known that we were going forward as an independent distiller, under the 2025 market conditions, we would have made different decisions in recent years.”
Mooney continued by saying that the community of artisanal distillation is “scouring” and that the legal and regulatory framework concerning alcohol makes it difficult for a distillery the size of Westward to achieve consumers, as well as many mediated problems such as inflation and prices. “There are more closures than openings, overall volume and income is declining, and almost everyone loses money,” he said. “There are exceptions, of course, but the typical artisanal distiller is too small to be financially sustainable and unable to reach many consumers who want its products.”
Westward was a leader in American single malt Since its foundation more than two decades ago, making whiskey from a beer base which, as well as other distilleries like Westland,, Stranahanand St. George, paved the way in the category. This news seems particularly disappointing since the TTB finally gave the American Single Malt its own legal definition Last year, something that Westward and other distilleries had long pleaded. While the interest in this category fades in relation to Bourbon and rye whiskey, the distilleries were betting on its future – and are always – as well as the investment business Dedicated specifically to the American single malt. “Whether it's a boon, or nothing at all, depends on each of us,” said Mooney. “It is to us and our American peers of single malt to generate consumers and exchange excitement. If the West generates excitement, and a few dozen of our peers do the same, then we will have a hot category. We are counting on it. ”
In the end, Mooney considers this new phase of restructuring as a new opportunity, and argues that this is not only a bad situation. “(IT) gives us a unique opportunity to review the decisions we have made at a different moment, with a different future in mind, then reinvent ourselves to compete and win as independent distillery in the world as today,” he said. “In addition, we are intrinsically stubborn, and we do not intend to leave.” This remains to be seen, of course, but we will update you on the situation as you go.
