€35m new distillery for Tullamore Dew

William Grant & Sons has announced a €35 million investment in a new distillery for its Irish whiskey brand Tullamore Dew.

As well as allowing the company to meet long term production demand for the whiskey, whose sales are currently growing by more than 15% annually, the move will see whiskey production return to the town of Tullamore for the first time since 1954, when the original distillery closed.

Currently in the final stages of negotiating the purchase of the 58 acre site at Clonminch from Offaly County Council, William Grant expects to begin work on a state of the art distillery later this year.

With a new Tullamore Dew visitor centre due to open in September, the firm will employ 25 people in the local town on top of more than 60 workers at its bottling facility in Clonmel.

Describing this investment as representing “an important next step in the long-term growth and development of the Tullamore Dew brand”, Stella David, chief executive of William Grant, remarked: “We’re excited about bringing whiskey distilling back to Tullamore Dew’s roots for the first time in almost 60 years.”

Maurice Doyle, group marketing director for William Grant, set out the company’s plans for the new project, revealing: “Our distillery will combine traditional distillation practices with the very latest in modern and green technologies to prepare the brand for future growth, while making sure the exact same taste and quality which has made Tullamore Dew famous around the world continues to be delivered.”

In addition, Doyle pointed to the “major growth story” currently being enjoyed by the Irish whiskey category, observing: “with this investment we’re looking forward to putting Tullamore Dew and the Midlands region back on the map as one of Ireland’s premier whiskey producing regions.”

Having been bought by William Grant in 2010, Tullamore Dew has seen worldwide sales almost double since 2005 to nearly 700,000 cases.

Much of this demand is coming from the US, as well as emerging Irish whiskey markets such as Germany, Sweden and Eastern Europe.

Other Irish whiskey brand owners are also moving to capitalise on this growth. At the end of 2011, Irish Distillers announced a €100m expansion of its Midleton Single Distillery, where Jameson is produced.

In the same month, it emerged that Beam Inc had confirmed an agreement to buy Cooley Distillery for US $95m, acquiring for itself a major foothold in a sector which, according to Impact Databank, grew by 11.5% in 2010.