Jeff Arnett

Jeff Arnett is no stranger to challenges. He has a history of taking them head on. So, when he opened Company Distilling, you just got the sense that it would be a success. After all, he has been challenged throughout his professional career and continues to succeed.

Arnett is from Jackson, Tennessee and went on to get an engineering degree from the University of Alabama prior to moving into a job with Proctor & Gamble in New Orleans. That wasn’t exactly what he had in mind after college, as his passions at the time were in the auto industry. Unfortunately for him, the auto industry was going through a phase of contraction, so he made the best of it and went off to P&G.

He was faced with several challenges there that would aid him in his future venture into the whiskey business. He learned coffee, business margins, Pringles, and was part of a new venture for Folgers singles. He took a lot of lessons from that time and even managed to move back home to Jackson with his wife Lori and their 2 children. Following the conclusion of his stint with P&G, he wanted to get into the auto industry. Fortunately for the whiskey drinking public, he didn’t get that dream, but was introduced to a new challenge instead! JACK!

Arnett, who was already a Tennessee Squire at the time, went to work as a quality control engineer at the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg, TN. He began that position, which very importantly took him all throughout the distillery grounds. He met the challenge of being a part of each aspect of the distillery. So, when Jimmy Bedford stepped down as Master Distiller in 2008, Arnett became the 7th Master Distiller at Jack Daniels.

When Jeff Arnett became the Master Distiller, he was faced with another challenge: He needed to grow the brand. There were 3 brands when he took over, but several were to follow—Tennessee Honey, Tennessee Fire, Tennessee Tasters, Jack Daniels Sinatra Select, Jack Daniel’s Rye, and Jack Daniels No. 27 Gold. That is a lot of additions for a company with the history of Jack Daniels. While all of them (especially the flavored whiskies) weren’t “his favorite”, he put everything he had into Jack Daniels every day. Nonetheless, Arnett had the dream to found his own distillery, so in 2020, he departed Jack Daniels.“I was in my 50s and I wasn’t getting any younger and trusted myself to do something independently,” Jeff explained.

Born from that desire was his next venture, Company Distilling. With this new brand, Arnett said, “We wanted to create something that could be your everyday sip.” Of course, there were challenges. Arnett’s biggest challenge came partway through his founding of Company Distilling in 2019, and that was the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Starting during the pandemic was not without its challenges, of course. We were forged in fire, from the supply chain issues to an increase in the cost of materials, but we’ve pushed through and kept believing in our product. We’re putting something out there that we’re truly proud of and that we truly enjoy drinking.” Arnett said in an interview.

So, challenges in the past have prepared Jeff Arnett for the challenges of the future, and we all get to enjoy the flavors of the journey.

Contributed by: M. J. Jacobs, Smyrna, Tennessee