Edrington has trimmed its portfolio, agreeing to offload a majority holding in Wyoming Whiskey and the distiller’s namesake American whiskey brand.
A transaction, for an undisclosed sum, has been agreed with co-founder David Defazio that will see Edrington’s 80% holding head back across the Atlantic. The scotch whisky specialist, which owns The Macallan, The Glenrothes and Highland Park single malts, bought into Wyoming Whiskey in 2018 before upping the initial 35% stake to 80% three years ago.
The US craft distiller was founded in 2006 by Brad and Kate Mead along with Defazio, who today welcomed the opportunity to “re-commit (the company) to its roots”.
“Moving forward, Wyoming Whiskey will … return to the culture and constitution that made it the whiskey of the west and a staple of the Rocky Mountain whiskey category,” he added. “We are proud to honour the contributions of our partners at Edrington and look forward to introducing the trade and consumers to a Wyoming Whiskey that represents the very best of what this brand has always been capable of.”
The head of legal & corporate affairs at Edrington Americas, Mike Zitelli, added: “It has been a pleasure working with the Mead family and David DeFazio on a brand steeped in heritage and authenticity. We wish Wyoming Whiskey every success under its new ownership and with its more focused localised approach.”
Edrington is scheduled to release details of its full-year performance in fiscal 2026 (to the end of March) next week. For the corresponding period a year earlier, group sales fell by 10% as the company admitted to having battled with “a more challenging year than we expected”.
