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Irish Distillers has announced plans for a €10.5m investment at Midleton Distillery, Cork which will see the company install three new copper pot still. The investment supports the Irish Whiskey Association’s target of global growth of 300% by 2030.
Irish whiskey is the fastest growing premium spirit in the world. Since 2012, Irish Distillers has invested €120m in the Midleton Distillery, €20m at its Fox and Geese bottling facility in Dublin and is currently investing €100m at its Dungourney maturation site. In August 2016, the company also announced an €11m redevelopment project at the Old Jameson Distillery in Smithfield, Dublin to showcase the best of Irish whiskey to tourists.
All of Irish Distillers’ barley comes from farms located within 100 miles of Midleton Distillery.
“Using unmalted barley is a long-standing tradition of Irish whiskey and one which Irish Distillers continues,” Paul Wickham, General Manager of Midleton Distillery said.
“At present, we spend €60m annually on cereals, energy, capital projects and payroll in the local economy and this will increase with the installation of these new stills.”
Exciting times in Midleton as we take delivery of three new stills to increase our single pot still Irish whiskey production capacity by 30% pic.twitter.com/fhSTBu9K7s
— Irish Distillers (@IrishDistillers) January 19, 2017
“Irish whiskey continues to enjoy phenomenal global growth, led by Jameson with sales of 5.7 million cases in 2016,” said Jean-Christophe Coutures, Chairman and CEO of Irish Distillers.
“We are seeing growth accelerating across Jameson and the wider single pot still Irish whiskey range, such as Redbreast and Green Spot, and we will continue to direct our focus for growth here. With our increased production capacity, we are confident that the category will hit the ambitious targets set by the Irish Whiskey Association – increasing exports to 12 million cases by 2020 and 24 million cases by 2030.”
The three copper pot stills, handmade by master coppersmiths Forsyth’s of Scotland and weighing a combined 24t, were delivered to Midleton Distillery on Wednesday night. Each still has a capacity of over 75,000 litres. Installation has now commenced and the stills will be operational by June 2017.
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