Economic Development Authority provides $4 million loan to whiskey barrel manufacturer | News, Sports, Jobs

A worker moves around whiskey barrels at the West Virginia Great Barrel Company’s manufacturing facility in Caldwell in October 2023. (Photo by Steven Allen Adams)

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CHARLESTON — The West Virginia Economic Development Authority approved an additional series of loans for a Greenbrier County-based company that manufacturers whiskey barrels after loaning $6 million to the company more than seven years ago.

The EDA voted Tuesday to provide Caldwell-based West Virginia Great Barrel Company a $2 million forgivable loan and a $2 million 15-year term repayable loan for its Appalachian Stave subsidiary which manufactures staves for use in barrels.

The $2 million forgivable loan will allow West Virginia Great Barrel Company to retain 230 employees and add an additional 30 employees to the business that makes whiskey barrels for some of the nation’s most popular whiskey distillers. The $2 million repayable loan has a 1% interest rate, using equipment as the collateral.

The loan funds are coming through the EDA’s High Impact Development Project Fund, which allows the EDA to use monies in the Economic Development Project Fund for projects with investments of more than $50 million and expected creation of at least 200 permanent jobs.

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West Virginia Great Barrel Company is located in Greenbrier County, but Appalachian Stave is spread out among several southern West Virginia counties, according to Mike Graney, the acting cabinet secretary for the Department of Economic Development and acting EDA chairman.

“it’s growing and it’s an important part of our economy in multiple counties: Greenbrier, Monroe, Nicholas, and Boone,” Graney said. “We feel as if this is a great way to spend the final couple million dollars from this high-impact fund for this project that was approved several months ago.”

According to Graney, West Virginia Great Barrel Company has invested more than $83 million since the company was first announced by Gov. Jim Justice and former Department of Commerce Secretary Woody Thrasher in 2017. At that time, the EDA approved a $6 million loan for the company to finance the purchase of equipment.

“This project brings good value-added jobs to the state,” Thrasher said in a press release at the time. “West Virginia Great Barrel Company will create 113 new high quality jobs in their manufacturing plant and another 25 new jobs in a stave mill and log yard. And using West Virginia’s own white oak will support jobs in our state’s timber industry, on which many families and communities rely.”

At the time, the project pulled down an additional $6 million from banks and additional private investment to bring total project funding to $30 million. Marshall University’s Center for Business and Economic Research estimated that the company could have an annual economic impact of more than $50 million.