Permission granted for €25m whiskey distillery

Walsh Whiskey Distillery has been granted planning permission to build a new €25 million Irish whiskey distillery in County Carlow

Walsh Whiskey, producer of The Irishman Irish whiskey brand, has been granted planning permission to build a new €25 million distillery

It was revealed in October last year that the group, producer of The Irishman and Writer’s Tears Irish whiskey brands, had received financial backing from Italian drinks company Illva Saronno, owner of Disaronno, to build a new distillery, maturation warehouse and visitors’ centre at Royal Oak, County Carlow.

The development will allow capacity for 400,000 cases annually, while warehouse capacity will increase to 1.9 million nine-litre cases – allowing to company to stock-build its portfolio of aged whiskeys.

Work is to commence on building the site in September this year, with construction expected to be completed by October 2015 and distillation thought to begin in 2016.

The distillery will have two production lines using both pot stills and column stills which will facilitate Walsh Whiskey Distillery producing all four types of Irish whiskey: pot, malt and grain and blended.

Walsh Whiskey will also have the capacity to distil whiskey under contract for selected private labels.

The expansion will create a total of 55 permanent and part-time jobs in the Carlow area over the course of years. In addition, the construction process will provide up to 40 jobs during the 18 month development phase.

An 18th Century country house will also be restored as part of the development, while the planned distillery visitor centre will cater for 75,000 ‘whiskey tourists’ by 2021.

The company believes that its distribution network will increase following the development, from 30 to over 100 countries, including key Asian markets China and India.