Derry Irish whiskey distillery gets green light

The future of Irish whiskey has been given a major boost this week as plans for a new £15m distillery in Londonderry were given the go-ahead.

How the Niche Drinks Irish whiskey distillery in Londonderry will look once completed

Niche Drinks, producer of St. Brendan’s Irish Cream Liqueur as well as a range of own-brand liqueurs for UK retail chains Mark’s & Spencer’s and Sainsbury’s, has been granted permission to build a factory complex at Campsie.

The group intends to eventually move into the distillery from its current operations base at Leckpatrick Dairy – its home for the past 30 years – for which change of use permission is being sought to transform it into a supermarket. Niche will use the proceeds from its sale to invest in the new distillery.

“Our business has remained strong even in the current climate and we have to plan for the future,” said Ciaran Mulgrew, managing director of Niche Drinks. “We want to increase our production capacity and to add new technologies into the business and that is why we are building a distillery in the new factory.”

The Niche Drinks distillery is the latest in a line of new Irish whiskey developments announced by various companies in the last 12 months.

With Irish whiskey enjoying a healthy growth rate, particularly in the US where volume increased 22.5% (according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the US), brand owners and entrepreneurs have been quick to invest in establishing their own distilleries.

County Meath’s Slane Castle hopes to have plans for a €10m distillery and malting plant on its existing grounds approved shortly, while Jack Teeling, former managing director of Cooley, is considering Dublin’s first new distillery in almost 40 years.

Already producing and laying down liquid is the new Dingle Distillery in County Kerry, and Kentucky company Alltech which began distilling at the Carlow Brewing Company in County Cork earlier this year. Meanwhile the ‘Big Four’ are investing in either increasing production at their existing distilleries or building new ones.

William Grant’s Tullamore Dew expects its new €35m distillery to be completed in 2014, and Pernod Ricard is increasing production of Jameson with a €100m investment.