Food and Beverage
Bon appetit! Kentucky’s food & beverage industry is large and diverse, featuring specialized processes and equipment to rapidly transform raw agricultural goods into consumer food products. Kentucky’s Touchstone Energy Cooperatives not only provide power to our members in this realm, but also work to meet their carbon-reduction needs.
Pernod Ricard joins Kentucky bourbon boom
French spirits producer Pernod Ricard is joining Kentucky’s bourbon boom, investing $196 million to construct a completely carbon-neutral distillery at its 265-acre site in Marion County, Ky.
Food and Beverage Growth
Pernod Ricard
France-based spirits maker Pernod Ricard announced plans in 2022 to invest $250 million to construct a carbon-neutral distillery near Lebanon, Ky. The distillery is being designed to achieve LEED certification – an internationally recognized sustainability framework for healthy, efficient, carbon and cost-saving environmentally friendly buildings – including low carbon technologies such as as electrode boilers powered by certified renewable electricity.
Maker’s Mark
With its bottles distinctively topped by red wax, Maker’s Mark is an icon of Kentucky bourbon. Star Hill Farm, home of the Maker’s Mark Distillery in Loretto, Ky., has achieved Regenified Certification for proven regenerative farming practices to enhance the soil, reduce carbon emissions and to maximize the flavor of everything the farm yields, including several hundred acres of regeneratively grown grain varietals. Since 2018, Maker’s Mark has implemented over $500 million in expansion projects.
Diageo
Diageo, a global leader in beverage alcohol, operates distilleries in Shelbyville, Ky., and Lebanon, Ky., The company recently opened its first carbon-neutral distillery in Lebanon. The London-based company worked with Kentucky’s Touchstone Energy Cooperatives to develop the 72,000-square-foot distillery operates using zero fossil fuels for production, and 100% renewable electricity. The distillery has the capacity to produce up to 10 million proof gallons per year.
Flowers Foods
Flowers Foods, Inc., is one of the largest producers of packaged bakery foods in the United States with 2022 sales of $4.8 billion. Flowers operates bakeries across the country, including Bardstown, Ky., and London, Ky. The company’s top brands include Nature’s Own, Dave’s Killer Bread, Wonder, Canyon Bakehouse, and Tastykake.
