The name Diageo may not be so easily recognizable, but its brands certainly are: this European spirits company is reportedly responsible for distilling 40% of all Scotch whiskey via well known names like Johnnie Walker and J&B.
But it’s Diageo’s Crown Royal whiskey brand that’s drawn the ire of our neighbors to the north after a recent business decision impacting a plant in Amherstburg, a town on the Detroit River border with the US.
This week, Ontario premier Doug Ford responded angrily to reports that the spirits company would be closing the Amherstburg Crown Royal bottling plant, killing 180 jobs in the process.
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Ford recently declared that he had a message “to [the company’s] CEO in France: You hurt my people, I’m going to hurt you” adding that Diageo leaders were “dumb as a bag of hammers.”
As further evidence of Ford’s outrage, bystanders then watched the Ontario leader dump a full bottle of Crown Royal whiskey onto the ground in protest. He said he encouraged others to “do the same thing,” and to “start supporting companies that make whiskey here in Ontario.”
Reports suggest Ford views the plant closure as a casualty in Canada’s ongoing trade spat with the United States – a characterization that Diageo denies, saying the decision was made well before tariff determinations were made and has nothing to do with them.
Instead, the company contends that the move was part of an effort to streamline its North American supply chain and, also, move closer to U.S. consumers.
And while Ford appears to call on Canadian consumers to boycott the brand, a report in the Toronto Sun pointed out that this approach might not be such a great plan. Crown Royal, they noted, is only made in Canada, where the brand employs 500 workers. Not to mention, the company buys millions of dollars worth of the country’s corn, rye and barley in order to produce it.
Despite this, Ford continues to play hardball. The Sun reported that, as of Tuesday, his staff claimed that unless Diageo reversed this decision, Ford might delist the company’s other products, taking them off the shelves in the province, much like he did with American products earlier this year when related U.S. tariffs were first applied.
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