The makers of Jack Daniel’s are feeling the sting of Canada’s ongoing boycott of American-made alcohol. Brown-Forman, the U.S. company behind brands such as Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey and Woodford Reserve bourbon, reported a 62 per cent plunge in Canadian sales during its latest fiscal quarter compared with last year.
The slump follows retaliatory measures by several provinces earlier this year, when American alcohol was pulled from shelves after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian goods. While Alberta and Saskatchewan have since lifted their bans, many other provinces continue to keep U.S. spirits off store shelves.
Speaking on a call with investors, Brown-Forman’s chief financial officer Leanne Cunningham acknowledged the sharp downturn: “American spirits products have been off the shelf in Canada for months. This had a significant impact on our first quarter of fiscal 2026, which will impact our full fiscal year results.”
Company CEO Lawson Whiting described the dispute as creating “significant headwinds.” While non-U.S. brands in Brown-Forman’s portfolio, including Diplomatico rum and El Jimador tequila, continued to grow, they were not enough to offset the steep losses from American whiskey and bourbon sales.
The company’s overall sales dipped three per cent for the quarter, with declines in Germany (10 per cent) and the U.K. (16 per cent) — but Canada stood out as the hardest hit. A press release cited “macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty” as weighing on international markets, with Canada singled out for the largest losses.
Industry groups say the impact goes beyond distillers. The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States noted that Canada is the second-largest market for U.S. spirit exports and welcomed Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent move to remove retaliatory tariffs on CUSMA-compliant goods, including a 25 per cent levy on American spirits. Still, it stressed that the real recovery hinges on Canadian provinces returning U.S. products to store shelves.
“The unfortunate decision to remove American spirits from Canadian retail shelves is not only harming U.S. distillers, but it’s also reducing revenues for provinces and creating burdens for Canadian consumers and hospitality businesses,” the group said.
For now, the shelves remain emptier in much of Canada, and both producers and retailers are bracing for continued uncertainty in one of the industry’s biggest export markets.