captain morgan

Cool!

I couldn't believe that he actually put a dollar figure on the future income from the excise taxes, 100 million, 5 x the current Cruzan income stream. I hope people are going to start making plans to rebuild WAPA.

I love Captain Morgans spiced rum. Well I used to love it. This Irish, Indian can't drink firewater.

Good T'ing!!! Wonder what Cruzan rum thinks of it.

I hope some of the rum tax stays on St. Croix. In the past the bulk of the money went to St.Thomas.

Awesome news for St. Croix and VI as a whole. The exposure for St. Croix is priceless, giving other outside businesses a reason to take a look at the island and investigate why Diageo, PLC (Capt. Morgan) made their decision. It should also create a ripple effect of new business on the island. Additionally, it will create a point of interest for tourists visiting St. Croix and/or Capt. Morgan fans wanting to say that they have been to the new factory.

As an "outsider" looking for reasons to invest in St. Croix, I see this as being very good news. I am at a loss to see why this would not be a welcome addition to St. Croix but perhaps there are some reasons why this opportunity might not be all good??

Congratulations to St. Croix, the USVI and Governor deJongh.

The Press Release:
http://www.diageo.com/en-row/NewsAndMedia/PressReleases/2008/New+Captain+Morgan+Distillery+on+St+Croix.htm

any word on where it will be?

Anybody know or have a sense of:
- what did USVI give to them to entice them to come here?
- where their facility would be located?
- how much land they need?
- are they just distilling from products that come from off-USVI, or will they grow additional raw product on-USVI?
- are there any community safety issues (exploding factories, chemical vapor poisoning, etc)?
- how labor intensive the process is... will this create a lot of jobs for locals? Are they good jobs?
- Does this company have a history of treating workers fairly?

For everyone who is interested in what this operation will bring to STX I suggest you tour the Cruzan Rum facility.

Basically the molasses arrives in bulk tanks from some other island, it is fermented for two weeks then distilled. Most of the rum is then shipped off the island for packaging. Flavored rums are packaged in Florida. The rest of the bulk rum is sold to other companies.
Some rum remains on STX for aging. They do have a very outdated packaging line (circa 1950) at the factory that is used a few days a month.

Making rum is a highly mechanized process industry. A mini refinery. Making rum is not nearly as interesting as making Scotch or Bourbon.

I imagine Captain Morgan's distillery will be state of the art. It will provide some good jobs for those qualified to run and control the process, some factory labor type jobs for those individuals needed to load and unload the tank trucks and not much else beside a few tour guides and people to sweep the floor. On STX jobs are needed so it will be a good project, but they won't need hundreds of workers.

As for waste, Cruzan Run used to pipe it directly into the ocean. Don't know what they do now.

Jim

I wonder if it will be in the same place as the old Southern Comfort distillery/factory? Some of the equipment is still there I believe...its near Williams Delight.

And yes, cruzan still puts the waste into the ocean. It's EPA approved but I'm still cynical about dumping anything into the ocean. Apparently though the biggest, tastiest lobster can be found under the rum slick! But only for those brave enough to dodge the sharks that hang around the slick too!

More of the story can be found here: http://www.onepaper.com/stthomasvi/?v=d&i=&s=News:Local&p=1212899253