Is the Bourbon Boom Over? Brown-Forman Announces Major Layoffs, Shutters Barrel Facility

Jim Beam White Label Bourbon Whiskey seen at the bar counter. (Photo by Igor Golovniov / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)

On Tuesday, spirits conglomerate Brown-Forman informed its investors of what it described as “a series of strategic initiatives for growth,” including laying off about 12% the company’s global workforce, restructuring its executive leadership team and closing the Louisville-based Brown-Forman Cooperage.

Brown-Forman owns major brands including Jack Daniel’s, Old Forester and Woodford Reserve on the whiskey front, plus Herradura Tequila and Diplomatico Rum.

In total, the company employs roughly 5,400 people, which means 12% layoffs equates to terminating about 648 employees.

“In 2025, Brown-Forman celebrates 155 years of delivering Nothing Better in the Market. We have achieved this impressive milestone in part because of our relentless focus on evolving our strategy, our portfolio, and our organization to grow and thrive,” Brown-Forman CEO and President Lawson Whiting said. “Today’s announcement will ensure we have the structure and teams in place to continue on this path, while also making investments that we believe will facilitate growth for generations to come.”

According to the Kentucky Herald Leader, Brown-Forman has often made a point of noting it’s the only bourbon maker with its own cooperage. In fact, it had two plants until it sold the other, which is in Alabama, to Independent Stave in April. Now that Brown-Forman has shut down the Louisville plant, no bourbon maker has an independent cooperage, and Brown-Forman will begin to source barrels from a third party like everyone else does.

Is This the Beginning of the End for the Bourbon Boom?

This news comes on the same day the Wall Street Journal published a story declaring the end of America’s bourbon boom. Indeed, the alcohol market has suffered in recent years and faces what feels like a new major challenge every other month or so. Younger generations are drinking less. Drinkers are cutting back and partaking in Dry January and Sober October. Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy that curb the appetite for booze are catapulting in popularity. Cannabis is becoming more and more normalized. Low-and-no-alcohol drinks are increasingly in demand. The upcoming geopolitical climate in the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory throws yet another wrench into the works with promises of tariffs that scare the bourbon industry to death.

Bourbon has grown at an outrageous rate over the past few decades, and distilleries have ratcheted up supply to meet the demand. Now, demand is waning, and supply will have to follow suit. This will have certain benefits for whiskey enthusiasts (it may be easier and cheaper to find a bottle of Blanton’s or Eagle Rare in the near future), but it also will mean layoffs and closures like those announced by Brown-Forman. Rumors swirl that Beam may have layoffs of its own coming.

Due to a variety of factors, drinking is down, and that affects the once-outrageously popular bourbon market, which is undoubtedly slowing.