LEXINGTON, Ky. — San Francisco-based Bespoken Spirits Inc. announced plans to relocate its headquarters and manufacturing operations to Greyline Station in Lexington. The $3.2 million relocation will create 16 new high-wage jobs paying an average hourly wage of $70.77, including benefits.
The relocation of Bespoken Spirits’ headquarters and manufacturing operations will include building improvements, equipment, start-up costs and other related expenses. The move will also enable Bespoken to move up the supply chain to include distillation, completing the characterization and recipe catalog from grain to glass.
“Rather than putting spirit into a barrel and waiting passively for nature to take its course, we instill the barrel into the spirit, actively and precisely controlling the process to deliver premium quality tailored spirits full of nuance and flavor,” said Scott Savage, vice president of research, development and production at Bespoken Spirits. “As a born-and-raised Kentuckian and engineer, I am thrilled at the opportunity to bring this company to my home, enabling faster growth with significant cost advantages.”
Bespoken Spirits is a privately owned modern spirits start-up company, founded in 2019, that is blending technology and tradition to take craft spirits to new heights. The process unlocks billions of flavor combinations, reducing each sip’s environmental impact. Bespoken has received well over 150 medals in spirits competitions. The company has built a rich library of spirit characterizations and recipes for spirit rectifying to produce a target spirit, thus the name Bespoken.
To encourage the investment and job growth in the community, the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) on Thursday preliminarily approved a 10-year incentive agreement with the company under the Kentucky Business Investment program. The performance-based agreement can provide up to $500,000 in tax incentives based on the company’s investment of $3.2 million and annual targets of:
- Creation and maintenance of 16 Kentucky-resident, full-time jobs across 10 years; and
- Paying an average hourly wage of $70.77 including benefits across those jobs.
By meeting its annual targets over the agreement term, the company can be eligible to keep a portion of the new tax revenue it generates. The company may claim eligible incentives against its income tax liability and/or wage assessments.
In addition, Bespoken Spirits can receive resources from Kentucky’s workforce service providers. Those include no-cost recruitment and job placement services, reduced-cost customized training and job-training incentives.
For more information on Bespoken Spirits, visit BespokenSpirits.com.
