Tullamore D.E.W. returns to birthplace

The owners of Tullamore D.E.W. whiskey are confident the product’s return to its Offaly birthplace, after 60 years, can provide the launch pad to sustained global growth.

Yesterday’s sod-turning exercise on a new €35m state-of-the-art distillery in Clonminch, near Tullamore, by Agriculture and Food Minister Simon Coveney means that by roughly this time next year, Tullamore D.E.W. will be produced in the town of its name for the first time since 1954.

Scottish company, William Grant & Sons — the third largest Scotch whisky maker in the world, behind Diageo and Pernod Ricard — acquired Tullamore D.E.W. from C&C for €300m in 2010 and has been producing the product in Midleton. While Irish whiskey is only one- fourteenth the size of its Scotch cousin, in terms of global sales, it is the fastest growing spirit worldwide and, currently, the most popular blend of whiskey in the US market.

Sales of Tullamore D.E.W. are increasing by around 20% per annum and should reach the 850,000 cases mark this year. It is the second biggest selling (behind Jameson) Irish whiskey brand in the world.

However, most of its popularity has been confined to markets like Germany, the Czech Republic (where it is the top selling whiskey of any hue) and other central and eastern European outposts.

Global brand manager Maurice Doyle said yesterday that the plan will be to cement growth in those markets, but also focus on the four big whiskey territories where Tullamore has been “under-represented” of late: Britain, Ireland, the US and France.