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Speyside Bourbon Cooperage will invest $16.85 million to build a new stave mill in Pittsylvania County’s Brosville Industrial Park, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced last week.
A U.S. subsidiary of a French company, Speyside Bourbon Cooperage produces staves, or strips of wood, from American White Oak, which are used to make the company’s bourbon barrels.
Pittsylvania County’s stave mill will supply Speyside’s Smyth County cooperage (a facility where workers make barrels). The stave mill is expected to create 40 new jobs and will source 40% of its timber from Virginia landowners, according to the news release.
Speyside Bourbon Cooperage is a division of Speyside Cooperage, which was founded in 1947 in Scotland. In 2008, the Tonnellerie François Frères Group bought Speyside Cooperage. In the U.S., Speyside has cooperage locations in Shepherdsville, Kentucky; Jackson, Ohio; and Smyth County, Virginia. The Virginia facility opened in 2020. Additionally, Speyside Bourbon Cooperage opened a stave mill in Bath County in Millboro in 2018 and invested $114,000 in an expansion the following year. In 2020, Speyside opened another stave mill in Glade Spring in Washington County.
“We never thought we would have four sites in the state, but once we started working here, it became clear that Virginia is the perfect partner for us.” Darren Whitmer, president and general manager of Speyside Bourbon Cooperage, stated in the news release.
The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services worked with Pittsylvania County, the Pittsylvania County Industrial Development Authority and the Southern Virginia Regional Alliance to win the project.
Gov. Youngkin approved a $250,000 grant from the Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund, which Pittsylvania County will match using local funds, according to the news release.
“The manufacture of high-quality oak staves by Speyside Bourbon Cooperage leverages one of Pittsylvania County’s historic economic drivers – forestry and agriculture – and allows us to operationalize our renewable white oak resource at a much higher level. Also, the construction of this facility will complete the development of the Brosville Industrial Park, providing a clear indication that economic growth remains strong in this area,” Dr. Joey Faucette, chair of the county’s Industrial Development Authority, stated in the news release.