Barton distillery purchases former Bird & Son Vinyl manufacturing facility

STAFF REPORT

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Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012 — Barton 1792 Distillery has announced the purchase of the Warehouse  Support Center Building at 1010 Withrow Court in the Bardstown Industrial Park.  The 300,000 square foot facility, with the storage capacity of approximately one million cases of spirits, will become the company’s new distribution center.  The company will also be purchasing eight acres contiguous to the facility for trailer staging.

The warehouse was originally the site of the Bird & Son Vinyl manufacturing plant.

Clilck to enlarge.

Johnnie Colwell, Barton 1792 Distillery plant manager said, “We will be upgrading the facility with a cold room for products that are heat sensitive and add additional dock spaces along with office and IT renovations.  The acquisition allows additional space to store items produced on our first and second shift bottling operations as well as it gives us the capability to expand the bottling operations.”  Barton 1792 Distillery recently expanded its processing area with additional bottling tanks and bulk storage, allowing it flexibility to produce ready to drink items such as its Margaritaville brand.  New equipment on each line has also been added, giving the Distillery greater bottling capability.

Barton 1792’s current distribution center, located on its distillery property, is one third the size of the new facility.  The current distribution center will be repurposed in connection with the bottling operations.

Since the purchase of Barton 1792 Distillery by Sazerac in 2009, there has been a considerable amount of growth in the Distillery, as well as the addition of the new Visitor Center in 2011.

“We see great potential in Bardstown, both from an operations standpoint and a tourism standpoint,” said Mark Brown, president and chief executive officer, Sazerac Company, Inc.  “With the addition of this new facility, we’ll be able to expand even further in Bardstown.”

“There have been great things happening at Barton 1792 since the purchase by Sazerac,” said Kim Huston, president of the Nelson County Economic Development Agency (“NCEDA”).  “We have watched them grow their products, add employees and expand into the increasing popular tourism side of the bourbon industry.  We are so glad that company leaders saw the potential this Distillery had and chose to make such great investments in its future.  I can’t wait to see what’s next.”

The purchase price of the building was not disclosed.

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