£10m whiskey distillery planned for Derry

A new £10 million whiskey distillery is to be opened in Derry.

Niche Drinks, formerly St Brendan’s Irish Cream Liqueur Company, is in talks with Invest NI after applying for planning approval to erect a new £10m, custom-built factory complex in the city.

Niche Drinks currently manufactures Luxco’s St Brendan’s Irish Cream which is exported to the US, Scandinavia, Russia and mainland Europe. The company also manufactures other ranges of Irish cream liqueur products and ready-made cocktail drinks. Its clients include Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Aldi and Asda in the UK and Ireland.

The Derry operation will be the only independent one in Ireland and is looking at starting up a new brand of whiskey, at a time when Irish whiskey is booming with the €100m expansion of Irish Distillers Midleton plant in Cork.

Managing director Ciaran Mulgrew told the drinks business, “We are building a new manufacturing plant for our existing operation and we are adding the distillation plant into that development.

“I am not sure that smaller independent companies like ours can contribute enormously to the development of the (whiskey) category, what we can do is give consumers choice by providing additional Irish Whiskey’s for them to try.”

This announcement also follows on from the news of plans to convert a historic jail in Belfast to a distillery.