Diageo to build rum distillery on St. Croix

Diageo are to enter into a public-private initiative to construct a high capacity distillery on the island of St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. The new facility will be capable of producing rum in bulk from 2011, and beginning in 2012, the distillery will supply all bulk rum used to make Captain Morgan branded products for the United States.

This 30-year commitment should provide a boon for the local area, with jobs and long-term revenue practically guaranteed, providing a massive economic stimulus for the entire Territory of the US Virgin Islands. Something which Governor John P. deJongh, Jr. was happy to expand upon:

“This Agreement, when ratified by the Legislature of the Virgin Islands, marks the greatest single financial step forward we have taken in this Territory in fifty years. This will bring jobs and a tremendous future stream of revenue, a long-term source of funds that will go far towards solving many of the challenges we face as a Territory.”

He continued, “When fully built out and operating, the Diageo rum facility will enable us to address our long-term challenges, in particular our unfunded pension liability and long needed capital projects without having to take the money from other areas of need, or borrow from our children.”

The distillery is planned to be state of the art and environmentally sound, and early estimates put the capacity at 20 million proof gallons distilled every year. The development will diversify the Virgin Islands rum industry, which enjoys an existing relationship with primary rum producer, Cruzan VIRIL. Diageo currently sources its rum for Captain Morgan products from a vendor in Puerto Rico.

According to an estimate from July 2007, the US Virgin Islands have a population of 108,448, while the local population of "Crucians" on St. Croix number around 60,000.

Alexis Hercules 24/06/08