Diageo To Spend $80m To Expand US Ready-To-Drink Beverage Production

By Maev Martin
Diageo To Spend $80m To Expand US Ready-To-Drink Beverage Production

Spirits group Diageo said it would spend $80 million to install two can-filling lines at a new plant in Illinois, to boost production of fast growing ready-to-drink beverages.

The new facility in Plainfield, Illinois will make more than 25 million cases of ready-to-drink beverages every year, including Smirnoff seltzers and spirits-based cocktails from Crown Royal and Ketel One Botanicals.

Commercial production is expected to start by the summer of 2021, the company said in a statement.

Fastest-Growing Category

Sales of ready-to-drink beverages rose 26% in North America in the second half of 2020, the fastest growing category for Diageo in the region during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said in January.

Competition has been heating up for hard seltzers - flavoured sparkling water infused with alcohol - as liquor companies move to take advantage of a category where sales have doubled every year since 2016 in the United States.

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Earlier this year, Diageo said it would buy the maker of hard seltzer brand Lone River Ranch Water, while rival Anheuser-Busch InBev announced a more than $1 billion investment in its US manufacturing facilities to ramp up production of hard seltzers.

News by Reuters, edited by Chrckout. 

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