Award-winning distillery has a lesson for brewery

I FIND it hard to believe the Competition Authority and the Government let Heineken proceed with the takeover of the Beamish brewery in Cork.

How they perceived it to be a good thing for the country beggars belief.

A little research would have shown that under the Fine Gael/Labour coalition, Diageo attempted to purchase the Cooley distillery purely to absorb the firm and eliminate the competition.

Thankfully, Ruairi Quinn blocked the move.

This year Cooley distillery collected the ultimate award of ‘World Distillery of the Year’ beating off the competition from the conglomerates.

It’s a shame to see a profitable brewery close resulting in large job losses so that an international company can increase profits in pursuit of a market monopoly.

Shane Mawe

Seacrest

Skerries

Co Dublin