‘Stalling’: Amherstburg mayor on $28.5M offer to buy Diageo plant

Amherstburg’s mayor is calling on Diageo to strongly consider taking a multi-million dollar offer to buy the Crown Royal bottling plant by an unnamed company.

“They are anxious to buy it,” said Michael Prue. “The site has everything they could possibly need.”

Prue tells CTV News Windsor, after talks with Diageo, the unnamed company gave a preliminary offer to buy the plant for $25 million. According to the Mayor, Diageo’s sale agent then counter-requested $28.5 million, which the unnamed company agreed to.

But Diageo never followed through, according to Prue.

In comments sent to thespiritsbusiness.com Diageo says it has not received any ‘appropriate’ offers to buy the site.“If a potential purchaser with a credible plan to continue operating the facility as a going concern who committed upfront to retain unionised jobs, we would certainly engage in discussions,” the statement reads. “We have not yet been approached by any such party.”

A statement mayor Prue argues is not accurate.

“We have met with them (unnamed company) on three or four occasions,” said Prue. “Once by zoom, other times in person. And we know that they’re very serious.”

Diageo announced in August that it was closing the plant which bottles Crown Royal whisky in February 2026.

The company had stated they were closing the plant in order to “streamline its North American supply chain.”

Ford has been very open about his frustrations with this closure — he dumped out a bottle of Crown Royal during a news conference in early September and then threatened to remove Diageo products from the LCBO shelves.

Diageo also owns dozens of other well-known brands, including Johnnie Walker, Guinness, Baileys, Smirnoff and Captain Morgan.

Diageo has not responded to our request for comment as of this publication.