A Note from Senior Management: Craig Chadbourne – Corporate Director of Supply Chain
In my 21-plus years at Luxco, I have worked with – and now oversee – the teams that ensure Luxco branded spirits progress from the raw-materials stage to retail
shelves or on-premise accounts. From procurement and logistics to purchasing and scheduling, our teams do everything it takes to make a case or barrel of finished product. We work to ensure we have what our brands need – including the raw ingredients to make our products, the barrels they age in and the glass bottles and boxes they arrive in at retail – to meet customer demand.
The continued growth of the whiskey segment is a particular focus of our efforts, as evidenced by the stellar performance of our whiskey brands. Having an aged product adds an additional layer of complexity to an already complex supply-chain puzzle. What we’re bottling today had to be planned for years prior, and what we are planning today needs to line up with customer demand in the future.
Consumer trends, such as the current premiumization in the whiskey segment, add another layer of complexity. To meet consumer demand for whiskey at higher proofs and age statements, companies must have ample supplies of aged product.
At Luxco, we are investing in every facet of manufacturing to increase distilling capacity, barrel storage, and ultimately finished case production to meet the expected continued growth of consumer demand, and we are confident in the success of those efforts. The dumping of the first barrel at Lux Row Distillers earlier this year helped ensure Luxco will not need to contract-fill new fills of Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. And while our legacy Luxco rye products have always been sourced from MGP, our ownership by MGP has allowed for a vast amount of innovation in our rye and other whiskey offerings.
The results of these investments – along with the efforts of the entire Luxco team – can be found in the stories about our wide – and growing – array of great whiskey products in the articles of this newsletter.