A large beverage company is interested in setting up shop in Amherstburg.
During Tuesday night's council meeting, mayor Michael Prue revealed that the town has been in serious discussions with one of the three companies that premier Doug Ford suggested last week wanted to purchase the Diageo plant.
Diageo announced in August that it was closing the plant, which bottles Crown Royal whisky in Feb. 2026, to "streamline its North American supply chain".
A closure would impact approximately 200 employees who are represented by Unifor Local 200.
Prue said the interested company would be a much larger operation than Diageo in terms of production and employees.
"We have had discussions with that one group, and that one group wants to use the Diageo plant and produce alcoholic beverages, but they also have talked about dealcoholized beverages as well, and I can't let anymore go than that," Prue said.
Prue said the group was immediately attracted to Amherstburg because of what the town can offer on day one.
"They want the employees. They said where else are we going to find 168 employees who are trained, ready, and can operate on day one. It's one of the reasons that they came here," said Prue.
Ford has been very vocal about his frustrations with the closure, even threatening to remove Diageo products from the LCBO shelves.
Prue said the province has been involved in ongoing discussions and he would like matter resolved before the end of the year to offer job certainty.
"Whether or not the premier wants to do exactly the same, or Diageo, or this company, I know the company is really gung ho to do it very quickly," Prue said.
Prue said should Diageo choose not to sell its facility, the interested company was shown another available property within the town that could accommodate about half of their production needs.
-With files from CTV Windsor's Robert Lothian