Business

Diageo US Virgin Island (USVI) has completed development of two rum barrel warehouses, where it will age the rum to produce its Captain Morgan products for the United States market, starting in 2012.

The warehouses of 100,000 square foot are located in the Estate Diamond area of St Croix, some four miles from the new Captain Morgan distillery under construction.

The warehouse can store up to 200,000 barrels of rum, or the equivalent of 100 million 750ml bottles, Diageo said.

The new USVI operation is owned by Diageo Plc, the same company that owns the majority of Jamaica's Desnoes and Geddes Limited, trading as Red Stripe.

"The completion of this modern, environmentally-sound rum barrel warehouse facility brings us one step closer to becoming fully operational by January, 2011 at which time we will be producing and ageing rum in St Croix," said Dan Kirby, Vice President, Operations, Diageo USVI.

"Just as we have done throughout the construction of the distillery, we built the barrel warehouse with its environmental impact top of mind."

Distillery

In addition to the barrel warehouse, Diageo USVI is constructing a distillery on St Croix capable of producing approximately 13 million 9-litre cases of Captain Morgan rum, the company said.

Construction of the distillery began in August 2009 and is on schedule to be commissioned by January 2011, Diageo said.

The company projects annual tax revenue to the USVI government of US$130 million from the distillery.

The plant is a joint project of Diageo and USVI, under a deal reached in June 2008 for Diageo to develop and operate the facility, under a 30-year arrangement.

Diageo says Captain Morgan is the second most popular rum worldwide.

business@gleanerjm.com