Jack Daniel's To Expand Tennessee Distillery

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Soaring sales figures suggests that the world has developed quite a taste for American whiskey. And to satisfy the masses, Jack Daniel's is expanding its distillery in the small city calls home, Lynchburg, Tennessee.

Blake Farmer from member station WPLN reports.

BLAKE FARMER, BYLINE: Last year, Jack Daniel's hit a sales record - 11 million cases of charcoal-mellowed, sour mash whiskey. But the nearly 150-year-old brand still only controls three percent of the global market, says senior vice president John Hayes.

JOHN HAYES: Even with all this growth and success, we believe we're only scratching the surface.

FARMER: So parent company Brown-Forman is pumping $100 million into Jack Daniel's, adding stills and space for aging more barrels.

The one-of-a-kind process in an out-of-the-way place is part of the Jack Daniel's story. And Frank Coleman, of the U.S. Distilled Spirits Council, says a rising middle class around the world is drinking it up.

FRANK COLEMAN: For at least the last four or five years, more than half of the Jack Daniel's that was consumed on the planet earth, was not within the borders of the United States.

FARMER: While more whiskey will flow from Lynchburg, it won't all be the Old Number Seven recipe. One of the hot sellers is a new flavored variety called Tennessee Honey.

For NPR News, I'm Blake Farmer in Nashville. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.