The End Of Johnnie Walker

KILMARNOCK – The last bottle of the world renowned whiskey Johnnie Walker is being filled and with it the company Diageo will close the factory’s doors … forever.

For Black or Red label whiskey lovers, the news comes as a slam to the forehead with a brick. So does it for the 700 employees that still work at the Kilmarnock, Scotland, factory were the legendary whiskey has been brewed and bottled since 1820.

For the Scottish community the news has been equally unsettling and protests against the closure have been plentiful. But even Scottish Premier Alex Salmond was unable to convince Diageo to keep the factory open and the tantalizing liquor flowing.

The company had already announced in 2009 that it planned to close the Johnnie Walker factory. Of the 700 employees, 430 accepted a departure severance pay, about 200 of them found work at other jobs within the company and 82 employees were terminated.

The last bottle of Johnnie Walker to roll off the assembly line will be on display at a museum that is about the history of the brand.

The very first Walker’s Kilmarnock Whisky bottle was sold in 1820.

It is the most widely distributed brand of blended Scotch whisky in the world, sold in almost every country with yearly sales of over 130 million bottles.