Sláinte whiskey eyes Ireland launch and RTDs
Backed by American actor Liev Schreiber, Sláinte Irish Whiskey has nationwide expansion in the US and more markets in sight, including Ireland, the brand’s co-founder tells us.
Sláinte Irish Whiskey was launched by Schreiber and UK native Richard Davies in 2022.
While Schreiber is known for his acting credits, Davies is the drinks veteran, having begun in the industry in 1995, serving as director of the Merlot Brasserie Group, helping a friend launch the Cheltenham Gin brand, and creating his own rum, Neptune, which he has since exited.
He will also launch a new gin brand, Posh Gin, in spring 2027, which he says has “tremendous potential and an immediate ability to stand out on the shelf”.
On choosing Irish whiskey as a project, and with a specific focus in the US, he notes that it was “once the number one brown spirit consumed in the US, not Bourbon.”
“Prohibition then happened, and obviously the shipping of Irish whiskey stopped, but the American consumers still wanted it and what the US producers did was produce substandard American whiskey during Prohibition and label it as ‘Irish whiskey’ to sell,” Davies tells The Spirits Business.
“The American palate got used to Irish whiskey being a substandard product and it wasn’t even Irish whiskey they were drinking.”
Davies says he’s always had a fascination with Ireland too; from its welcoming hospitality to his own family heritage with his grandmother from the country. He also notes that, in a previous life, he was a horse breeder, which frequently took him to Ireland.
“When I owned my bars and restaurants, it gave me the luxury of being able to breed racehorses, so I used to travel over to Ireland, go to Punchestown, and just experience horse racing there,” he recalls.
“On my first trip out there, I heard the amazing phrase ‘sláinte’ – what a bloody brilliant word – but I didn’t really understand the whole depth of the meaning.”
Regarding the brand’s name, he says: “Obviously on the surface it means ‘cheers’, but it means more than that; it’s wishing somebody the best, and a toast with people shouldn’t be a flippant thing, especially since Covid. It ties into our industry and what we are trying to achieve. The ultimate moment that any producer is trying to get is that ‘cheers’ moment.
“It’s the culmination of absolutely everything: the production, the juice, the bottle, the marketing, the sales team, the distribution and the consumer.”
US launch: ‘steady wins the race’ approach
After he left Neptune, Davies began planning Sláinte with Schreiber during Covid, which he says gave the pair a lot of time to map things out, designing the brand, building the infrastructure of the company, dealing with trademarks and more. “Covid did me a massive favour in that regard,” he says.
When travel restrictions eased, he moved to the US with Sláinte launching online in 2022. “It’s still a relatively young brand,” he says. “We are currently in seven states and we’ve approached this in a very cautious and creative way.”
He feels a lot of new brand owners “get hung up on this false glory of being in 10 or more states”, noting “it’s just false flattery” and many fail by “just going out there with a scattergun approach” and the immediate aim of being a national brand.
“You don’t have to launch in 20, 30, 40 states, you need to really strategically target where you go,” he says. Davies notes the team opted for a more targeted, or “steady wins the race” approach. “It’s a very robust, extremely focused model, and we went for strategic states where it’s not a California pay-to-play.”
After an initial online launch in September 2022, Sláinte landed in seven states in February 2023: Texas, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, California and Massachusetts.
Davies adds that the brand will launch in two more US states towards the end of the year, though does not identify which. “We’re very solid in our seven states at this moment in time,” he says. “More states are more expensive. We’re laser-focused on where we are, and it’s working well. Our growth is exponential every year, which is fantastic.”
Regarding distribution, he’s seen both sides of the coin in the UK and US, but sees the latter as “almost a four-tier system”, where “it’s the producer, the distributor, the retailer, and the consumer, so it’s pretty flawed.”
“What we do is we tend to stay away from the big boys,” he says, noting that they are “more interested in their top 20 brands.”
Park Street is both an importer and distributor for Sláinte in Texas, Florida, New York, and California. Alongside this, the brand also partners with Green Light Distribution in Texas and Florida, Martignetti Companies in Massachusetts, and Allied Beverage Group in New Jersey.
“We’ve gone with small- to mid-size distributors, who may not have an Irish whiskey and tend to work very closely with those guys. It’s about relationships. The ethos with us is we just like to go with the smaller hungry distributors, who you can actually work with. That’s extremely important.”
With Sláinte, Davies says: “It’s a small internal team and it’s just to stay focused and get those crucial accounts, the ABCs, the Total Wines, and just really help them sell our product.”
Davies says the company has raised approximately US$6 million to date in investments. “This has enabled us to accelerate both production and market penetration. We still have approximately US$5 million available within the current raise as we continue to scale.”
The brand has delivered strong year-on-year growth since its first shelf presence, with case volumes up 125% in 2024, compared with 2023, according to Davies. The brand then grew volumes by 25% in 2025.
The aim is to hit 50,000 cases, which he says “should be achievable in 2028”.
Targeting the cruise market
Davies believes new brands need to look outside the norm for growth, highlighting Sláinte’s partnership with cruise liner Princess Cruises as an example. “Princess doesn’t normally take on startup brands and I still consider us to be a startup, so having them as a key partner is a privilege,” he says.
The brand is poured on 17 of the Princess’s ships and is part of its Love Line Premium Liquors collection, available at all on-board bars, on the rocks, neat or in five signature cocktails such as a Sláinte Frozen Irish.
“A cruise ship contract is absolutely huge,” Davies says. “It’s a guaranteed volume too, so you can really plan off the back of that.
We started our Princess Cruises contract nearly two years ago (in August 2024) and that’s now a circa guaranteed amount of cases per year.”
“It’s surprising how many passengers go through those ships,” he continues. “It’s focused our online presence in the US as well, where if somebody enjoys Sláinte on the ships, but may not have it in their specific state, you can just go online and order through our e-commerce partners, so we’re finding the e-commerce sales are really starting to bounce very nicely.”
Building brands for third parties
Davies says Sláinte’s success saw him contacted by other brand owners who sought out his help. “Weirdly enough, launching Sláinte Irish Whiskey actually created another arm to our company.”
This led to the launch of Sláinte Brands International. “It’s a full design, creative and sales agency that I own,” Davies says. “I slot other brands into our network like an incubator. Relationships are formed, we have a great sales and marketing team, and it’s just about helping other brands.
“We’re about to help launch a mezcal. The US is a tough market to crack.”
“What I love is it just stretches that creativity I have,” Davies says of Sláinte Brands International. “We either build brands for third parties from the ground up, or these third-party established brands come to us and go: ‘look, we’re struggling, we’re in New York and we’ve got low sales, can you help? And I’m like: 100%.”
John Paul DeJoria is also a partner in Sláinte Brands International, who is perhaps best known as the co-founder of Patrón Tequila (owned by Bacardi) and Paul Mitchell Hair products. More recently, he is also part of the group behind Round 2 Spirits, which created Weber Ranch 1902 Vodka.
“JP [John Paul] is a shareholder in one of the brands we are working with and just having him on as an adviser is fantastic. He is a great guy and he’s been there and done it. So to have him on the end of a phone is great.”
Liev is ‘hands-on’ and ‘open doors’
As for his co-founder, Liev Schreiber, Davies talks of how he “opens doors”.
Davies says: “Liev is a genuine business partner. He’s a board member and managing partner. There has been a little bit of celebrity brand fade, you know, as more celebrities have got involved in brands, and it’s just such a false narrative.
“From 2020, Liev and I have been building a company together. It’s showcasing his business skills, which are fantastic, and it does help as Liev does open a few doors and he’s very hands-on.”
The company also donates US$1 from every bottle of its Smooth Blend whiskey sold to Blue Check Ukraine, an initiative co-founded by Schreiber. The organisation identifies, vets, and fast-tracks urgent financial support to Ukrainian NGOs and aid initiatives providing life-saving and other critical humanitarian work.
The brand’s signature expression is its Smooth Blend, which is a triple-distilled Irish whiskey aged in Bourbon oak barrels and finished in Sherry casks. The 40% ABV whiskey is crafted, distilled and matured in Ireland at The Great Northern Distillery, which has been the brand’s distilling partner from day one.
However, Davies notes more releases are on the way, including a product in the ready-to-drink (RTD) space, a category that he feels Sláinte cannot ignore.
“Towards the end of this year, or definitely the very start of 2027, we will be doing a ready-to-drink product. We can’t ignore that one and I think it’s just the market. Everybody knows the success of the RTD category,” he says, adding that Sláinte “pairs so well with ginger”, as a hint to what it might be.
“Clean, green and Irish. A Sláinte and ginger [ale] over ice is just fantastic.”
Expansion: ‘Sláinte has to launch in Ireland too’
For other releases, he says: “We own quite a few very rare casks over in Ireland that were purchased back in 2020 and are now 25 years old. They are coming to an age where we can really do something clever with them. We will be launching a specialist range for Princess’s Duty Free as an exclusive. An amazing 25-year-old Irish whiskey.”
Davies also feels it’s time now to start introducing Sláinte to more markets, including Ireland. “Really, in 2027, Sláinte has to launch in Ireland too,” he says. “We have a lot of emails asking us when we are launching in Ireland. I’ve got a lot of contacts over there connected to horse racing.”
England is also targeted for next year and Davies adds he’s in talks with a partner that wants to take the brand into Europe and South Africa.
“We may seem quiet, but beneath that water, we are pedalling very hard. It’s a very exciting time,” he says.
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