Teelings in €10m distillery project
The Teeling Whiskey Company, which grew out of the sale of Cooley Distillery, two years ago — is to build a new distillery at Newmarket Square, in The Liberties area of the capital, near to where the family originally began crafting whiskey in the late 1700s.
The Teeling Whiskey Company’s new operation — which should be operational approximately 12 months from now — will be the first distillery built in Dublin in over 125 years. Whiskey-making ceased in the capital when Powers moved production to Midleton, Co Cork, in the mid-1970s.
“This project will bring distilling back to an area of Dublin long associated with world-class whiskey, which at one stage, had 37 different operational distilleries,” said Jack Teeling, the company’s founder and managing director.
“Building a working distillery is just one part of our plan for the Newmarket site, which will also involve the development of an integrated visitor experience to showcase the rich distilling history of Dublin and, in particular, The Liberties,” he added.
The company already exports a range of whiskies and poitín products, under the Teeling name, into 18 markets including Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Australia, the US, and the Benelux countries.
The new site — which will create 50 jobs in the construction phase and an initial 30 full-time positions once operational — will be able to produce 500,000 litres of whiskey per year, from three traditional copper pot stills.
The Teeling Whiskey Company has a supply agreement in place with Cooley.
Mr Teeling said a bigtarget demographic for the company, is the newer/ younger whiskey drinker. The new visitor centre is targeting 40,000-50,000 people in its first year.
Welcoming the company’s news, Jobs Minister Richard Bruton noted the importance of the food and drinks sector to the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs programme, and said the investment will bring a huge boost to the local community.
