The Jeff Davis Parish School Board Finance Committee gave preliminary approval Tuesday to a one year property tax exemption for Louisiana Spirits, who manufactures Bayou Rum and Kentucky Owl bourbon, at its facility in Lacassine.

The full School Board will vote on the extension during the board’s regular meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday. The Police Jury must also approve the extension.

The committee backed a request from Stoli Director of Manufacturing and Louisiana Spirits President Angelo Torre seeking an additional one year property tax exemption at a cost of $3,600 under the state’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program (ITEP). The program provides economic tax incentives, including an 80 percent property tax abatement, to manufacturers who create jobs and payroll in the state.

“Our experience with Angelo (Torre) since he’s come here has been very good with getting a handle on things at the rum plant and doing what they are supposed to,” Jeff Davis Parish Economic Development Chairman Ronnie Petree said. “He is trying to do everything local from hiring locally to doing business locally. We are impressed with what all he is committed to doing and all that he has done so far.”

Before the facility was built off I-10 in Lacassine, the parish was receiving $425 a year in property taxes for the nearly 30 acre site. To date, the property is generating $3,600 annually in property taxes.

Torre acknowledged that the company failed to meet a previous ITEP employment requirement in 2021 due to workforce challenges related to COVID, but said under new management the company has more than doubled its staff, payroll and production with future expansions planned.

“Since I have been with the company and taken over the facility in 2021 we had 19 full-time employees, in 2022 we had 33 employees and are now at 35 employees and will be at 40 full-time employees by the end of the year,” Torre said, adding that the majority of the employees come from the three-parish area.

Payroll went from $897,000 in 2021 to $1.8 million estimated this year, Torre said.

He said the facility has doubled its production rate by doubling the number of tractor trailers coming in to pick up spirits which has generated additional tax revenue. Gift shop sales have also doubled in a year with revenues generated by both local residents and out-of-state travelers.

“When I first arrived they were averaging between $19,000-$21,000 in monthly gift shop sales and now they are just over $40,000 a month,” Torres said.

This year the company is investing $3 million in a new bottling line which will take the facility from the ability to make 300 bottles per hour to 3,600 bottles per hour.

“Put that in perspective, that takes us from 57 tractor trailers to almost 500 tractor trailers this year,” he said. “Think about how that impacts the area with hotels, fuel, maintenance…..”

The company is also planning a $6-$8 million warehouse expansion in 2024 to handle the increase in productivity. A $8-$10 million distillation expansion and modification project is also planned to handle the new bottle line.

The company will also spend $6 million on a barrel storage, or aging room.

“A lot of things are happening over the next three years and I am very excited about it,” Torre said.  “We took off. I have left the runaway and have changed a lot of the ways we do business and I am not going backwards.”