Tara Jeffrey
Business and community leaders are abuzz over word global beverage company Diageo is building a Crown Royal Canadian Whisky distillery in St. Clair Township.
“This is the type of investment for people to be excited about,” said Matthew Slotwinski, senior development officer with the Sarnia Lambton Economic Partnership.
“It’s an international company carrying a brand name — which is going to draw attention to the area, and with that, is going to come a significant amount of investment and jobs as well.”
Diageo, one of the world’s largest producers of spirits and beers, plans to build the $245-million facility on 400 acres at the southwest corner of Highway 40 and Moore Line, across from Nova Chemicals’ Moore site.
The company said it will be its first Canadian carbon-neutral distillery.
Slotwinski said years of planning went into the deal.
“It was important for the company — not only the size of the land that was available — but mostly the location of Sarnia-Lambton for their access to potential export markets, access to the necessary infrastructure that’s required for such a facility to be built, and the community as a whole,” he said.
The facility will produce up to 20 million LAA’s (litres of absolute alcohol) annually.
Construction is set to begin later this year on the distillery as well as blending and warehousing operations, with opening set for 2025.
“This new facility will provide dozens of jobs in the local community, furthering Crown Royal’s commitment to generosity and giving back,” the company said in a release.
“We have the workforce,” said St. Clair Township Steve Arnold. “The tradespeople, engineering firms, vendors and materials, and the raw materials to run through the facility.”
Company officials would not confirm what feedstock it intends to use for its whisky or any potential benefits to local grain farmers.
“We are in a planning stage, however, once completed we will be able to share more details in that front,” said spokesperson Luis Rabago.
Spirits Canada says whisky brands like Crown Royal are produced from locally grown cereal grains that can include barley, corn, rye and wheat.
Arnold said the distillery would be similar in operation to Suncor’s St. Clair Ethanol Plant, which uses 40 million bushels of corn to produce 400 million litres of ethanol each year. The ethanol is blended into Petro-Canada gasoline.
Once the sugars and starches are extracted from corn to make ethanol, the remaining elements are used to make premium cattle feed.
“It’s just a different distillery process,” Arnold said. “And I think it’s good because you’ve got that circle of materials… there could be a spinoff here for new animal producers, or the actual growing of the grains.
“They’ve pledged to us that they are going to try and source locally as much as they can.”
Diageo currently has three Canadian manufacturing operations, in Amherstburg, Ont., Gimli, Manitoba and Valleyfield, Quebec.
Arnold said there is talk of opening a retail store at the site, which could become a ‘tourism tasting’ destination.
“And this one will be designed from the ground-up as a zero-contributor to any type of carbon footprint, so that’s really positive.”