The Spirits Business reported on Monday that a popular bourbon barrel brand, Staggemeyer Stave, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after its creditors shared that it was “generally not paying its debts as they become due.”
The company has roots that date back to 1958, and specializes in white oak barrels, which are used for aging some wines and, perhaps most notably, bourbon.
According to The Spirits Business, Staggemeyer Stave took out approximately $3,998,969.36 in loans from somewhere between 50 and 90 creditors. The stave business has liabilities between $1 million and $10 million, and assets within the same range.
Staggemeyer Stave wouldn’t be the first barrel company facing woes during these uncertain times. In August, the Independent Stave Company (ISC) announced that it was potentially cutting as many as 112 jobs at its production center in Lebanon, Kentucky. The majority of the jobs were in manufacturing.
ISC purchased Brown-Forman’s former cooperage facilities in Louisville for a hefty $13.66 million in June 2025. It appears that the company does not intend to get those facilities up and running, and ISC shared it would be putting the property back on the market.
A challenging time for the barrel business
It appears to be a rough year for not only the bourbon industry, but the barrel industry as well. Yet if there’s one thing history proves time and time again, it’s that innovations often coincide with challenges.
Forbes reported in March that one company intends to reinvent the barrel entirely. Modern Cooperage has decided to create barrels out of stainless steel instead. the company shares that oak staves are still a part of the newer barrel model, they are just housed in a series of racks inside the barrel.
According to the outlet, a paddle agitates the internal staves, ensuring the wood makes contact with the liquid. Though the barrels cost more up front, they last up to 50 years according to the brand.
The barrels additionally provide distilleries the opportunity to rotate different staves, in addition to reducing angel’s share.
“The wine barrel has not changed in thousands of years,” said Modern Cooperage COO Michael Bell according to Forbes. “We really thought about inverting that process and having metal, which is much stronger and more sustainable, on the outside — and on the inside, the ability to insert very high quality staves.”
Some of the company’s clients include a list of heavy hitters, like Pahlmeyer in wine. A huge client within the whiskey industry that works with Modern Cooperage is Brown-Forman. Though we don’t know if this is true, it might be possible that the reason the whiskey giant sold its cooperage could have something to do with the spirit of innovation.
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