Big booze dealt another blow as Brown-Forman cuts 12% of its workforce

It doesn’t matter how hard you went on December 31st, your start to 2025 won’t have been as rough as the alcohol industry’s.

After a stark health warning from the nation’s top doctor, Brown-Forman, which counts Jack Daniel’s whiskey, Herradura tequila, and Chambord liqueur in its lucrative drinks cabinet, announced this week that it’s shedding ~650 global employees as it looks to cut costs — yet another sign that the business of Big Booze seems a little shaky.

The 155-year-old drinks giant is also closing its Louisville barrel-making facility, and announced new appointments in its executive team as part of the “Series of Strategic Initiatives for Growth”, presumably a response to sales slumping for the last 4 quarters in a row, as its stock recently dropped to a 10-year low.

Hangover

For years, Brown-Forman enjoyed a whiskey and bourbon boom, as America embraced the smoky, caramel, and complex taste of grain-based spirits.

But, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, sales volumes of U.S. Whiskey dropped 1.2% last year, the first fall since 2002. That was a trend that Brown-Forman failed to buck, with annual sales dropping for the first time since 2017, making the surgeon general’s recent warnings — and Dry January and the coinciding talk Americans’ broader turn away from booze more generally — sting all the more. Its whiskey division, which made up roughly two-thirds of the company’s revenue and includes the whole Jack Daniel’s family, Woodford Reserve, 3 scotch brands, and more, fell 3% in 2024.