{"id":49112,"date":"2025-09-07T12:21:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T12:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/49112\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T12:21:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T12:21:17","slug":"ford-warns-crown-royal-maker-will-pay-dearly-for-plant-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/49112\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford warns Crown Royal maker will \u2018pay dearly\u2019 for plant closure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ontario Premier Doug Ford again warned drinks multinational Diageo<\/a> that it will \u201cpay dearly\u201d for its plans to close a local bottling plant, as the Crown Royal<\/a> maker presses ahead with the move.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On Friday, Ford was asked more questions about the decision by Diageo to close a Crown Royal bottling facility in Amherstburg, Ont.<\/p>\n

The premier has flirted with the idea of removing Crown Royal from the shelves of the LCBO in response, though his government says no final decision will be made<\/a> on that until the plant actually closes in February.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can you go after your largest customer?\u201d Ford mused on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people\u2019s business is the LCBO; the people of Ontario own the LCBO. We\u2019re their largest customer in North America, we do $740 million of business with Diageo. Who in their right mind would go after their largest customer?\u201d<\/p>\n

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The premier\u2019s office said it was too soon to say if Ford\u2019s threat now extends beyond removing Crown Royal from the LCBO to all Diageo products, adding that \u201cevery option is on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Johnnie Walker, Guinness, Tanqueray, Baileys, Smirnoff, Captain Morgan\u2019s and Gordon\u2019s are among the company\u2019s vast empire of alcohol products.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey think I\u2019m bluffing? I\u2019m not one to bluff,\u201d Ford added on Friday.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI promise you that Diageo will pay the price and they\u2019re going to pay dearly. We\u2019ll just wait until the last person walks out that door and then we\u2019ll act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford\u2019s critics have questioned his vague, hard-line approach to the plant closure, where around 200 jobs will be lost, suggesting it\u2019s bad for investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy pouring out that bottle, it\u2019s suggesting a boycott \u2014 maybe that\u2019s what the premier was saying,\u201d Liberal MPP John Fraser previously said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very much a performance. We should be more thoughtful and disciplined. This isn\u2019t just about relationships; we want companies to stay here. We can\u2019t run around calling them names, even when they do something we don\u2019t like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diegeo has said the decision to close its Ontario facility has nothing to do with tariffs from United States President Donald Trump, and said it made similar decisions in the United States, Italy and Scotland.<\/p>\n

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Ford remained resolute on Friday, without offering any details of what he was threatening to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to protect that community with everything I have, and that\u2019s one of the tools I have,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it sends a message \u2014 if you\u2019re dealing with the government of Ontario, and we\u2019re your largest customer, not just in Canada in North America, you have to support us, you have to support the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ontario Premier Doug Ford again warned drinks multinational Diageo that it will \u201cpay dearly\u201d for its plans to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,995,36324,36325,18,13346,19,17,13347,790],"class_list":{"0":"post-49112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-crown-royal","11":"tag-diageo","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-ford-government","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-ontario-politics","17":"tag-politics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}