Gruppo Campari subsidiary Austin Nichols Distilling has begun construction of a new packaging facility for Wild Turkey, a brand of Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, at its distillery in Lawrenceburg.

Gruppo Campari has invested around $44m on the new operation, which covers 125,000ft² area on the site.

The new facility is expected to begin operation by the fall of 2013 and create up to 62 new jobs.

The bottling and packaging facility will enable the company to have full control of Wild Turkey’s entire operations ranging from distilling to aging to bottling in Lawrenceburg.

The new facility will have a capacity to package more than four million cases annually.

It will also bottle Gruppo Campari’s US distilled brand, Skyy Vodka.

Last year, the company has invested around $50m for a new distillery with an aim to produce twice as much bourbon as the old distillery.

Gruppo Campari has acquired the Wild Turkey brand and Austin Nichols from France-based spirits company Pernod Ricard.

Gruppo Campari CEO Bob Kunze-Concewitz said the company sees a real future in Wild Turkey and in the people of the great Commonwealth of Kentucky.

"Since we purchased the Wild Turkey brand in 2009, we have dedicated about $100m in the distilling, warehousing and packaging operations in Lawrenceburg to support the growth of our Wild Turkey Bourbon products, not just in the US, but around the world," said Kunze-Concewitz.

Wild Turkey also plans to open a new visitors’ center this summer with an investment of $4m.

The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority preliminarily granted the packaging facility project for tax incentives up to $2m through the Kentucky Business Investment (KBI) program and up to $0.35m in Kentucky sales tax refunds through the Kentucky Enterprise Initiative Act.

Wild Turkey currently sells about one million 9l cases worldwide annually.