Govt. shutdown impacts Central Oregon businesses

As the partial government shutdown continues, businesses you might not expect are feeling the effects, including Central Oregon’s alcohol industry.

Any new alcohol product has to be sent to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau for approval, but in this shutdown, the bureau has closed.

The so-called TTB approves everything alcohol; from the formula to the label design.

With the government in its 18th day of being partially shutdown, the approval process that already takes two months or longer could take much longer.

Cody Cloyd, the director of private labels at Bendistillery, said this not only affects Crater Lake Spirits production, but also the dozen private businesses Bendistillery works with.

“Anything new,” Cloyd said. “We can’t even get started on those things. So we can kind of plan all we want, and none of those plans are going to come into fruition until something starts moving.”

The distillery, along with a number of breweries said they’re worried about the backlog of formulas and labels from such a long shut down. And without new product releases, business could take a hit.

“You know, releasing new products is one way to continually update our brand. To show people new things we’re doing,” he added. “So it’s really hard to estimate any number value to that. But in the long run, it can effect us and delay us. Who knows how long it will take for those projects? So there’s potentially months of lost sales.”

Also, it would be illegal to mislabel a product with an already-approved label.