Diageo Receives Permit to Build Captain Morgan Rum Distillery in Virgin Islands

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Diageo U.S. Virgin Islands (St. Croix, Virgin Islands), a recently created subsidiary of Diageo Plc (LSE:DGE) (London), has received permit approval from the St. Croix Coastal Zone Management Committee to construct a $165 million Captain Morgan Rum distillery in St. Croix. Company officials and local authority welcomed the news. The island is expected to cash at least $100 million annually over the next 30 years on rum tax rebates. Hundreds of jobs will be created during construction phase, and at least 40 permanent jobs are expected to be created when the plant becomes operational.

The next phase is for Virgin Islands officials to secure financing for the construction of the new distillery. Once completed, construction is expected to begin immediately on 26 acres at the Renaissance Park on St. Croix's south shore. According to company officials, the facility will include enclosed storage and fermentation tanks, processing facilities, distillation columns, wastewater treatment and utilities systems. Alcohol production plants designer Tomsa Destil S.L. (Madrid, Spain) was retained to provide engineering and construction services for the new 20 million-gallon-per-year rum distillery.

With production expected to begin next year, Diageo U.S. expects to start construction this summer on a new warehouse on 20 acres on Estate Diamond in St. Croix. The 100,000-square-foot warehouse will store up to 200,000 barrels of rum distillate for aging before being shipped to the U.S. for bottling. Benton Construction Company Incorporated (Christiansted, Virgin Islands) is the general contractor for the warehouse.

Diageo trades in more than 180 markets worldwide. It employs more than 22,000 people in 80 countries. Diageo has manufacturing facilities across the globe, including Europe, North America, Africa and India.

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