Distillery changes hands

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A Kansas food ingredients maker said Wednesday it significantly expanded its beverage alcohol capacity by completing its planned acquisition of most of the assets for the former Seagram distillery in Lawrenceburg, Ind.

MGP Ingredients Inc., in Atchison, Kan., announced in October it would acquire most of the sprawling distillery which dates back 164 years from Trinidad-based CL Financial. CL Financial, which renamed the plant Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana LCC, acquired the distillery in 2007.

MGP said Wednesday it paid about $11 million in cash, equal to the distillery’s current assets minus current liabilities, subject to post-closing adjustments for working capital and possible future indemnification claims.

The purchase includes the plant’s alcohol fermentation and distillation operations, bulk barrel storage facilities, blending operations, a tank farm and a grain elevator in Rushville, Ind. It doesn’t include the plant’s bottling and packaging plant which was sold to an unnamed third party.

MGP, which began supplying industrial alcohol in 1941, said the purchase will allow it to begin producing premium bourbon and whiskey products while substantially expand its gin and grain neutral spirits capacity.

Tim Newkirk, MGP president and CEO, said “Community involvement and support is a hallmark of MGPI’s corporate culture, and we look forward to not only performing a business leadership role in Lawrenceburg and Greendale, but also assisting in the success of deserving projects, activities and concerns as a good corporate neighbor.”

The Lawrenceburg distillery, once of the community’s largest employers, has employed a couple hundred workers in recent years distilling and bottling bourbon, vodka and gin under contract for a number of different brands.