Parent company of premium Kentucky bourbon brand says it lost $75M in value
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- Molson Coors recorded a $75.3M impairment for Blue Run Spirits assets.
- Company logged $273.9M total write-downs after triggering impairment tests.
- Blue Run majority stake bought in 2023 for $78M, planned 2025 distillery never began.
The parent company of a premium Kentucky bourbon revealed that it has written down millions related to the brand.
Molson Coors, the majority owner of Blue Run Spirits, said Tuesday that it had to write down a $75.3 million “full impairment charge to our definite-lived intangible asset related to the Blue Run Spirits asset group.”
Molson Coors is the parent company of Coors Light and Miller Lite beers, as well as Blue Run Spirits, Five Trail whiskey and more. The publicly traded company is the second-largest beer maker in the U.S. The announcement was a footnote in the beer-based international company’s third quarter earnings, which overall indicated sales and profits are down significantly.
Molson Coors also revealed in another footnote that during the third quarter, the company realized after a “triggering event” that two of its brands — Kentucky bourbon and whiskey brand Blue Run Spirits and Czech beer brand Staropramen — were now worth less than the value on their balance sheets.
That required Molson Coors to record losses totaling $273.9 million, the company said, which includes about $19 million that goes on a minority shareholder’s balance sheet and not on Molson Coors’.
Molson Coors did not break the value loss down by company and did not elaborate on what prompted the loss. A spokesperson for Molson Coors did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company bought a majority share in Blue Run Spirits in 2023 for $78 million (of which $65 million was in cash).
In October, Molson Coors announced plans to restructure its business in the Americas and cut 400 jobs by the end of the year.
Blue Run launched in October 2020, and its boutique releases often sold out in minutes online. In 2022, high-profile bourbon blender Shaylyn Gammon from Campari joined as its first whiskey director.
In March 2023, Blue Run announced plans to build an innovative $51 million distillery in Lanes Run Business Park in Georgetown with a design by the same architecture firm that did Google’s headquarters.
That was supposed to open in 2025, but construction never began.
According to Jack Conner of Lanes Run Business Park, the original Blue Run contract was rescinded sometime in the last year after the park was not able to close the deal with Molson Coors.
Molson Coors did mention Blue Run Spirits in either the job cuts announcement or the Nov. 4 earnings release and subsequent call with Wall Street analysts.
Bourbon industry in a slump
As the alcohol industry has struggled to cope with uncertainties over consumer spending, tariff volatility and slumping demand, several major companies, including major players in the bourbon industry, have laid off workers and paused production.
- In January, Louisville-based Brown-Forman announced it was laying off 12% of its workforce — about 650 people — and closing its Louisville cooperage amid slowing whiskey sales.
- In February, Campari Group, parent of Wild Turkey Distillery in Lawrenceburg and Wilderness Trail Distillery in Danville, announced plans to cut 10% of its workforce, about 500 jobs.
- In August, Diageo, parent of Bulleit Bourbon, said it planned to cut an unspecified number of jobs as part of a plan to save $625 million over the next three years.
- In October, Kentucky barrel maker Independent Stave cut 110 jobs at its Lebanon plant.
- Meanwhile, Garrard County Distilling is closed and in receivership; Luca Mariano is in bankruptcy. Georgetown bourbon Limestone Farms Distillery is facing a lawsuit and $2 million in liens, while Tennessee whiskey maker Nearest Green has been placed in receivership owing more than $108 million to a Kentucky lender.
- Several distilleries have slowed or temporarily halted production as American whiskey-making hits its lowest level since 2019. Exports have slumped amid President Trump’s trade war and the glut of barrels with bourbon sitting in Kentucky warehouses hit an all-time high 16.1 million.
