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Thursday’s groundbreaking ceremony for the new Cruzan Rum wastewater treatment system drew more than 100 spectators, including more than half the Senate, Cruzan employees past and present, and executives from the St. Croix distillery’s parent company in Deerfield, Ill.
Under cloudy skies and intermittent showers, the gathering saw a bright future represented by the start of construction of the facility that will enable the company to expand production to fill a growing niche in the premium rum market.
Environmental concerns about effluent from the distillery have limited production at the plant off West Airport Road. Cruzan President Gary Nelthropp said when the new wastewater treatment plan goes online in early 2012, it will: reduce the plant’s water usage by 38 percent, eliminate 94 metric tons of waste each year (currently deposited in the landfill), reduce the emission of volatile organic compounds, and eliminate the discharge into the Caribbean of 150,000 pounds of oxygen-depleting materials. “There will be no more visible discharge of wastewater into the Caribbean,” Nelthropp said.
Nelthropp added that the treatment plant will also help to create a new product. Residual material from the fermentation process will be converted to “condensed molasses solubles,” producing an estimated 40,000 tons per year, which can be used in animal feed, fertilizer and dust control, among other things.
Matt Shattock, president and CEO of Beam Global Spirits and Wine, the spirits arm of Fortune Brands and Cruzan’s parent company, said he sees an important role for the St. Croix distillery.
“Rum is a large and growing category in the spirits industry,” he said, “and Cruzan Rum is a key brand in that category.”
Shattock said the company is investing “to make sure people are aware of our brand.”
The new wastewater treatment plant is part of the 30-year agreement between Fortune Brands and the V.I. government; and Shattock said the agreement was a major factor in the company’s decision to expand the plant on St. Croix rather than move it elsewhere. He praised deJongh for being the driving force behind the agreement, and the similar deal that led rival spirits company Diageo to begin construction of its Captain Morgan’s Rum distillery on St. Croix.
Thursday’s ceremony took place on a site where rum has been distilled since 1760. Nelthropp pointed to a huge, spreading tree on the grounds, which had withstood hurricanes and droughts.
It was able to do so, he said, because its roots run deep in the St. Croix soil. Cruzan Rum is the same way, he said. “Without the strong roots we have in the community, we would not have made it,” he said.
DeJongh celebrated the company's choice to stay in the territory, “Our partnership with Fortune Brands ensures that Cruzan Rum will remain Crucian for the long term.”
“What Cruzan Rum represents to us is a foundation to go forward,” he said. “It is our past, it is our present, it is our future.”
The Cruzan facility is believed to be the oldest continuously operating manufacturing plant on St. Croix, and possibly in the territory. It currently employs 59 people, including management, with an average tenure of 21 years.
According to Nelthropp, the plant currently produces about 10 million proof gallons of rum a year. The wastewater treatment facility will be able to handle 18 million proof gallons, and planning is under way to boost production to that level.
The construction is financed by the sale of bonds, which are backed by a share of rum cover-over funds that the expanded production will generate, part of the 30-year agreement. That funding mechanism has come under fire, primarily from Puerto Rico and its supporters, who resent losing market share, and cover-over funds, to the territory.
As the shovels were going into the ground on St. Croix Thursday, in Washington, D.C., a new front in that struggle was opened when Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), introduced a bill to ban such agreements retroactively.
A similar bill is languishing in the House, and deJongh and Delegate Donna Christensen have been lobbying lawmakers to not get involved in the dispute between the two territories.