Tullamore Distillery is reborn

Ernie – Ernst J. Scheiner, The Gateway to Distilleries at www.whisky-distilleries.net

William Grant & Sons Ltd., announced on March 28th, 2012 it will invest in a new pot still whiskey and malt whiskey distillery in Tullamore, bringing whiskey production back to the town for the first time since the original distillery closed in 1954. In 2010 they aquired the brand Tullamore D.E.W. from the Irish drinks maker C&C Group plc – Frangelico and Irish Mist – for €300 million. Tullamore D.E.W. was largely produced by Midleton Distilleries in Co. Cork, Tullamore Malt came from Cooley Distillery in Co. Louth.

Offaly Council gave green light for the planners on December 18th, 2012. The new Tullamore distillery will be built at Ballard and Clonminch in Tullamore‘s north. Next to the distillery there will also be a new visitor centre with a restaurant.

See official briefing document of the proposed distillery.

New Start
On September 12th, 2013 the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Simon Coveney ‘turned the sod’ on the new Tullamore distillery.

Production will start in autumn 2014 and will bring back distilling to Tullamore after the original distillery had to close in 1954. About €35 million will be invested in the new state-of-the art distillery which will be situated on a 58 acre site at Clonmich on the outskirts of Tullamore. The grain and pot still whiskey distillery will emply about 25 people.

By breaking a ceremonial cask full of Tullamore whiskey with William Grant & Sons Global CEO Stella David the construction phase of the new grain and malt distillery started. The reborn Tullamore distillery will produce about 1.84 million litres of alcohol or 1.5 million nine-liter-cases annually when it is finished. In 2014 there will be two warehouses to hold 55,000 casks. Altogether there will 26 palletized warehouses and three dunnage warehouses. The water is piped for 14km to the production site.

The Scottish firm William Grant & Sons employs more than 90 people in Ireland, in Dublin, Tullamore and in Clonmel at its bottling plant.

Facts
Tullamore D.E.W. has doubled its worldwide sales to almost 850.000 nine-liter-cases since 2005. It is the world‘s second largest Irish whiskey brand (behind John Jameson) with enormous growing figures by over 20% anually. It is very popular in Germany, Sweden and the Czech Republic but will also grow in the four big markets U.S.A., France, Britain and Ireland where Tullamore whiskey is under-represented.

In Germany it is the No. 1 among the Irish whiskeys with a market share of 65.3%.

The refurbished Tullamore Visitor Centre near the Grand Canal attracts about 40.000 visitors each year.

Information:
www.tullamoredew.com
www.williamgrant.com
www.whisky-distilleries.net