Site visits benefit consumers and distilleries, as they allow consumers to learn about a distillery’s production process, build brand affinity, and are additional sources of revenue for distilleries with events and on-site sales of distilled spirits, merchandise, tours, and food. While the benefits of inviting visitors to your distillery largely outweigh the potential costs of regularly hosting visitors, welcoming visitors to distilleries does create unique challenges and risks to distillery staff, properties, consumers, and environments. For distilleries to continue welcoming visitors to enjoy their locations, events, and products, it is
paramount that operators implement plans to create and maintain a safe and secure environment for everyone.
The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) Visitor Safety & Site Security Best Practices Guide, developed by member company experts, represents the first major best practice guidance document focused on managing visitor safety and facility security for the distilled spirits industry.
The DISCUS Safety & Risk Management Committee prepared the guide with the purpose of sharing best practices and strategies for improving the safety of guest-related activities on distillery premises and better securing distillery operations from potential incidents. It is designed to be impactful for distilleries of all sizes and covers safety risks that are unique to the distilled
spirits industry.
This guide covers a host of issues, such as:
- how to begin welcoming guests;
- establishing a security framework;
- assessing risks and vulnerabilities;
- identifying appropriate security measures and responding to visitor incidents; and
- specific best practices related to tours, gift shops, brand homes, restaurant spaces, event planning and overnight stays.
While this publication provides suggested safety protocols and strategies, it does not constitute a comprehensive guide addressing all visitor or site security safety issues. It is not intended in any way to be an industry standard or code
for regulatory purposes. While this document is based upon field experience and industry best practices, neither DISCUS or its member companies accept any responsibility or liability resulting from compliance or non-compliance
with any of its provisions, for any restrictions imposed upon materials or processes, or for the completeness of the text. Additionally, this guide is not intended to endorse any product or service that is provided as an example. All distillers should evaluate their own facilities and create visitor safety and site security programs that are appropriate for their unique circumstances.
Purchase includes print copy of the guide.
For DISCUS Members, please visit the Safety & Risk Management materials page on the members-only site to access and download the guide.
If you’d like to purchase access under the Non-Member Rate of $195, please click here.
Distilleries are one of the few manufacturing plants that welcome millions of visitors every year to tour facilities during production, taste the products produced, and purchase goods on-site, With the continued growth of tasting rooms and site tours around the country, more distilleries than ever are welcoming visitors and consumers onto their premises and distillers are increasingly being faced with difficult situations and decisions to best manage these visitors and protect their operations.
This course provides an overview of the DISCUS Visitor Safety & Site Security Best Practices guide, details how the guide can be utilized to help safeguard your operations, guests, and employees, and shares insights from DISCUS Safety & Risk Management Committee members.
Learning Outcomes:
1. Preview the insights found in the DISCUS Visitor Safety & Site Security Best Practices guide, including why it’s important, what topics it covers, and how to best use it to safeguard your guests, operations, and distillery team
2. Explore issues of particular importance from the guide with personal examples from expert speakers
Contributors
Steve Tucker