Teeling Whiskey Company triples turnover

Independent Irish whiskey producer The Teeling Whiskey Company saw its turnover more than triple last year to reach almost €25 million, largely attributed to bulk whiskey sales to Great Northern Distillery (GND).

Bulk sales to the Great Northern Distillery have bolstered Teeling’s financial results

Set up by brothers Jack and Stephen Teeling, the sons of businessman John Teeling; the company enjoyed a “landmark” year that witnessed the opening of its new €10 million distillery in Dublin 8 and the launch of a range of new products.

The company recorded a full year profit of €2.7 million after taxes, up from €1.7 million the year before.

Its success was largely bolstered by whiskey purchases from Dundalk-based production facility GND, which was bought by John Teeling from Diageo around two years ago.

Jack and Stephen Teeling each hold a 17% share in GND, while John Teeling owns the largest of any shareholder with just under a third.

The Teeling Whiskey Company also sold whiskey worth just over €1 million to the firm, enabling GND to “kick-start” their own business model of being the “supply partner of choice” for the secondary market.

As a result, Teeling Whiskey Company’s outstanding bank loans dropped from €15.9 million to €5.6 million.

Co-founder, Jack Teeling, said: “It was a landmark year for Teeling Whiskey in 2015 with the completion of the building of our new distillery.

“On completion of this significant milestone, our strategy to solely focus on developing the Teeling Whiskey brand allowed us to rebalance our inventory profile and at the same time de-leverage our balance sheet by off-loading excess inventory to GND to also enable them to kick-start their own business model of being the supply partner of choice to the secondary market for Irish whiskey.

“Our underlying growth of our branded business continues to be strong along with significant contribution from our visitor centre, the first operational distillery in Dublin in over 125 years. Since we opened the doors just over a year ago, we have welcomed over 100,000 [visitors].

“The distillery not only reinforces our differentiated product credentials and ensures we have consistent ongoing supply of whiskey to allow us to meet future sales targets, but it has also been integral in building our brand and telling the Teeling Whiskey story to visitors both at home and abroad.”

One such example is a new limited edition small watch Vintage Reserve bottling, consisting of 24-year-old single malt Irish whiskey distilled in 1991.

The liquid – one of a number of innovations which promise to offer “something new” – is matured in Bourbon casks to start with and then aged for up to three years in Sauternes wine casks.

“Looking ahead, we have a number of new products launching which will again offer something new to spirit drinkers and further segment the market,” Teeling added.

“Our five-year plan is to get to 100,000 nine litre cases, which normally symbolises the first major landmark in any international spirits brands’ development.

“We feel this is very achievable given the segmentation happening with the industry as well as the traction we are getting with our brand over the first few years of this plan.”