Serial entrepreneur John Teeling, the founder of Cooley Distilleries which was sold to the US drinks company Jim Beam for €71m in 2011 is back in the whiskey-making business.
The first of two Great Northern distillery plants at the former Harp brewery site in Dundalk has just commenced operations after a €10m investment programme. The second plant will start later this month.
The combined distilleries have the capacity to produce more than 40m bottles of whiskey per year or about one third of current Irish production, though this capacity won’t be achieved in the short to medium term.
The whiskey produced will be sold to the lower entry value own and private label retail markets and as raw material to the more than 20 pot still distilleries currently coming on-stream around the country.
John Teeling joined Vincent Wall on Breakfast Business and discussed the changing landscape in the Irish whiskey market - and his concerns about the quality standards of some of these new distilleries who, despite the growing popularity of Irish whiskey, may not manage to survive.
"Irish whiskey is going to grow - but nothing grows in a straight line," he warned, adding, "it will be volatile, and it will be cyclical," and some new players in the market might not realise what they are getting themselves in for.
