According to an article in the Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky distillery Green River just laid off its head distiller, Aaron Harris. This news that comes at a time when American whiskey is facing some pretty tough times and the global spirits industry overall is dealing with drops in sales and profits. Here’s what we know about the current situation.

Green River, which is located in Owensboro, Kentucky, has a long history as a whiskey brand and distillery, but the modern incarnation of the business has only been around for a decade after being revived in 2016. Bardstown Bourbon Company acquired it in 2022, and both now fall under the company’s Lofted Spirits business, making their own whiskey brands and contract distilling for many others. While Bardstown Bourbon Company has actually been expanding its operations in recent years, despite the industry’s troubles, it has had recent issues of a different sort. A few months ago, the former head of human resources filed a lawsuit accusing the company of sexual discrimination and providing alcohol to underage employees, among other transgressions. The company has disputed these claims and is attempting to have portions of the lawsuit removed from the public record, but it’s clearly a very bad look for the brand.

The news about Green River comes a year after the distillery laid off a quarter of its staff, which it said was for the “long-term health of our business” at the time. We reached out to a rep, and received the following statement: “Like much of the American whiskey industry, we are scaling back certain production activities to meet current demand for contract whiskey. While this is a sensible and necessary business decision, a small number of production roles will be eliminated. These decisions are never easy; we have taken great care to do so with respect for those impacted. The Green River brand is healthy and growing and the distillery remains operational and open to the public.”

This is not surprising, as the PR for most distilleries making decisions to let people go or scale back production are usually based around efficiency, although this does acknowledge that the demand for contract distilling is down. That should come as no surprise to anyone who has been following the news about MGP, the giant Indiana distillery that produces whiskey for many other brands like George Dickel, Bulleit, and WhistlePig, which reported a sales drop of about 50 percent over the past year. Other big names have been affected as well: the James B. Beam Distilling Co., the home of Jim Beam, shuttered one of its main distilleries for all of 2026, and Diageo has paused production at Cascade Hollow Distilling where it produces Dickel, as well as some of its scotch whisky distilleries. Most recently, it was reported that Brown-Forman, the family-owned company that makes major brands like Jack Daniel’s and Woodford Reserve, is in talks with Pernod Ricard about a potential merger. And Japanese company Kirin recently sold Four Roses to California wine company Gallo.

We will continue to update you with any more news about Green River and Bardstown Bourbon Company, and the American whiskey business overall.