Ontario Premier Doug Ford has said he is willing to reconsider his threat to pull Crown Royal whisky from shelves in the Canadian province.
Earlier in January, Ford stressed he would remove the Diageo brand from local LCBO store shelves once the group’s bottling facility in the province shuts next month.
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Speaking to reporters on Wednesday (21 January), Ford said he had given “an olive branch to Diageo”, to show the government a plan that can replace the roles affected by the closure of the Crown Royal plant in Amherstburg.
Diageo announced plans to close the Amherstburg facility in August. Operations at the Crown Royal bottling site are due to cease in February.
The exact number of jobs were not disclosed by the Johnnie Walker whisky distiller at the time but trade union Unifor said its members were “prepared to fight to save the 170 union jobs”.
“Show me a plan that’s going to replace those jobs, and then we’re good. But, you can’t take jobs out of a small town in Ontario that’s been around for a 100 years and then say ‘come and support me’,” Ford added.
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By GlobalData“We have other great whisky manufacturers that are employing people right here in Ontario. Let’s focus and support them.
“But if Diageo comes and says, ‘I’m going to replace these 200 workers, by manufacturing bottles, doing their cartons, doing other things, more advertising and so forth, and they can show me on paper. Then we’ll sit down, and I’ll be open. I’m pretty easy going.”
Diageo in August said the closure of the Amherstburg site was “part of an ongoing commitment to increase the efficiency and resiliency of its manufacturing footprint”.
It is retaining its Canadian headquarters and warehouse operations in the Greater Toronto area, as well as bottling and distillation locations in Valleyfield Quebec, as well as in Gimbli, Manitoba.
The business also said in August its Crown Royal whisky would still be “mashed, distilled and aged in Canada”.
