The town of Stevenson, along with Governor Robert Bentley, welcomed a new business and new employment opportunities at the Brown-Forman Cooperage groundbreaking last Thursday.  The new mill, which will be located just off of Highway 72, will produce white oak stave and heading material for use in the production of whiskey barrels for Jack Daniel’s brand products. Brown-Forman Cooperages’ Stevenson Mill, as the mill will be known, will employee 30 workers when it is fully operational. Jill Jones, Executive Vice President at Brown-Forman, said that the state and local governments worked well together to make choosing Stevenson an easy decision. Availability of wood, access and technically talented citizens also contributed to the corporation’s choice.
Mayor Rickey Steele shared with the large crowd that they were witnessing the first ground-breaking in Stevenson since 1995.  He also thanked Mrs. Earlyne Allison and her daughter Andrea Flippen for agreeing to sell a 55 acre portion of their farmland so that the town could be afforded new economic opportunities.

Governor Bentley said that his office is making good progress creating jobs across the state. “I believe when local government works well, the state works well. When we work together we can present an environment to you that will be very business friendly.”

Greg Canfield, director of Alabama Development Office, welcomed the new business and found pride in the fact that North Alabama is now affiliated with a name as reputable as Jack Daniel’s. He said “It’s nice to know that there will be a little flavor of Alabama in those bottles.”
Senator Shadrack McGill was also in attendance. He too was thankful for the jobs the mill will bring to the area. He joked that  those citizens who might be offended by the correlation that will be made between Stevenson and Jack Daniel’s can always say the mill is making barrels for Tennessee Honey,  a new product the company recently introduced.

In a November press release, Greg Roshkowski, Vice President, General Manager, Brown-Forman Cooperages said, “Brown-Forman Cooperage is very excited about opening a stave mill in Stevenson and we look forward to becoming a partner in the local business community.”  Brown-Forman conducted an extensive search in the Tennessee Valley Region and considered dozens of potential sites.  This mill will use grade white oak logs and studies done by Ken Muehlenfeld, Director, Auburn University Forest Products Development Center, show an abundant supply within the tri-state region.

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