It’s not the first time this year David Hayes has tweaked the menu at his Amherstburg, Ont., restaurant, trading one liquor in favour of another.
But now Gilligan’s Amherstburg, a family restaurant and bar, has pulled Crown Royal whisky from its offerings in response to the closure of the Diageo bottling plant in town — a move that is expected to cost more than 200 people their jobs in February.
“We have a lot of people that work in town that frequent here all the time, their families. A lot of guys like to come here after work. I’ve gotten to know them,” Hayes said. “It hits home on a personal level that way as well for sure.”
Earlier this year, as a trade war with the United States started to heat up and Ontario pulled American liquor from the shelves at the LCBO, Hayes switched from using Jack Daniels in a burger on his menu to Crown Royal.
“Now I’ll be taking that off the menu as well, unfortunately,” he said. “But there’s lots of local people that I can collaborate with to make another burger that way.”
Hayes says he sees first-hand the pride workers have in working for Crown Royal’s parent company Diageo. The company has not indicated the decision is related to tariffs, but Hayes said there’s a sense of “caution” in the town either way.
“There’s a fear that spreads beyond just that. If it can happen to the number one employer in town, it could probably happen to any number of places.”
Diageo has said it’s closing the Amherstburg plant — which is located about 25 kilometres away from the nearest U.S. border crossing — as part of an effort to improve its supply chain and bring bottling operations closer to U.S. consumers.
In statements to CBC, the company said Crown Royal will continue to be mashed, aged and distilled in Canada, and that it will maintain its footprint in the Greater Toronto Area, Gimli, Man., and Valleyfield, Que.
It has also said that all Crown Royal sold in Canada will be bottled in Canada.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford caused a stir Tuesday when he poured out a bottle of Crown Royal whisky while making an unrelated announcement in Kitchener, Ont.
Watch the moment Ontario Premier Doug Ford dumps a bottle of Crown Royal whisky
Ford said he company would “feel the pain” come February if workers were out of their jobs and that he urged all Canadians and Ontarians to “stand up for the people, because you don’t know if you’re next.”
While he didn’t clarify whether it meant he’d pull Crown Royal from LCBO shelves, as he did with American liquor, Unifor Local 200 president John D’Agnolo says he’s encouraging the province to make that move and would support a boycott.
But an elected official in neighbouring Manitoba says he thinks a boycott would be a mistake.
Derek Johnson is the MLA for Interlake-Gimli, where about 200 people work at Diageo’s Gimli distillation facility.
“If Doug Ford wants to continue pouring out Crown Royal, we’ll keep producing it right here in the Interlake,” Johnson said. “I kind of think that there’s a lot of people that would like to put the glass underneath the bottle and capture and then enjoy some of that Canadian-made alcohol.”
In Amherstburg, there’s hopes the Crown Royal bottling plant can be saved
Johnson says he understands Ford’s statement, and frustration in seeing jobs leave the province.
“But Crown Royal is manufactured right here in Manitoba … and it is important to our economy. Crown Royal continues to make that product and employ those people,” he said, pointing instead to a boycott of U.S.-made liquor.
“I guess I’m just reaching out and hopefully that provinces don’t start fighting amongst ourselves and we don’t cut off your nose to spite our face as Canadians.”
Regardless of what happens, Hayes said people in Amherstburg are “tremendous” about spending their money locally.
“I would love them (Diageo) to reverse it. But you know how these things go,” he said. “I just hope in six months we’re still talking about it and fighting it and doesn’t just go away quietly because it’s pretty tragic.”
