Speyside Bourbon Cooperage to lay off 52 in Atkins

Speyside Bourbon Cooperage’s Virginia entity will lay off 52 employees at its Atkins facility on April 23 due to slowdowns in the bourbon industry, according to a notice to the state dated Feb. 23.

The company plans to end production at the Smyth County operation, according to the letter sent to the state to comply with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.

Laid-off workers may be recalled “as business needs warrant based on department, by seniority,” the letter said.

A year ago, Speyside Bourbon announced plans to lay off 75 employees at the Atkins facility due to struggles in the industry. At that time, executives planned to end second-shift production and third-shift maintenance at the facility.

Speyside Bourbon Cooperage did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

In 2018, then-Gov. Ralph Northam announced the company planned to invest $26 million to build the Speyside Bourbon Cooperage in Atkins. He said the project was expected to create 125 jobs. The cooperage launched operations in February 2020, according to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.

Speyside Bourbon Cooperage is a division of Speyside Cooperage, which was founded in 1947 in Scotland. In 2008, the France-based Tonnellerie François Frères Group bought Speyside Cooperage. In the United States, Speyside has cooperages in Kentucky and Ohio.

The company opened a stave mill in Bath County in 2018. The mill produces staves, or strips of wood, from American white oak, which are used to make the company’s bourbon barrels. In 2020, Speyside opened another stave mill in Washington County.

Smyth County had an unemployment rate of 4.5% in December 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Virginia’s unemployment rate was 3.6% that month.

Kendra Hayden, director of community and economic development for Smyth County, wrote in an email that she was hopeful the layoffs will not be permanent.

“We are deeply saddened by this news and will work to support the folks who are looking for employment as well as Speyside as much as we can,” she said. “My office is working with our all local, regional and state partners to offer our support.”. 

Bourbon industry challenges

In 2025, sales of American whiskey, a category that includes bourbon, declined by about $100 million, to $5.1 billion last year, according to data from the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.

Daniel A. Lowenthal, partner and chair of the business reorganization and creditors’ rights group at New York-based firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, wrote about the industry’s struggles in an October 2025 piece published by the firm.

“Bourbon’s popularity might have peaked as consumers have been moving to other alcoholic and nonalcoholic options,” he wrote. “And Gen Z is drinking less alcohol than older consumers did in their 20s.”

President Donald Trump’s trade policies may also be a factor, Lowenthal noted.

“The tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on Canada prompted many individual provinces to stop selling U.S.-made bourbon and other spirits,” he wrote. “In August, the Canadian federal government lifted its ban on bourbon and other U.S. goods. But some of the provinces have not followed and still do not allow the sale of U.S.-made bourbon. The administration also levied 15% tariffs on products from the European Union. The EU has delayed announcing retaliatory tariffs while trade negotiations take place. Even so, sales of bourbon and other spirits to the EU and elsewhere have fallen this year.”

In February, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Trump exceeded his authority by imposing sweeping tariffs. Trump signed an order to implement a 10% tariff for 150 days starting in late February, but the administration is working to increase it to 15% for some countries, according to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.