FDBusiness.com

Irish Distillers, producer of some of the world’s most well-known and successful Irish whiskeys, has today announced it will invest €250 million to build a new distillery in Midleton, County Cork in order to meet demand and ensure the necessary future production capacity for its portfolio of Irish whiskeys globally. The distillery will produce some of the world’s most well-known and successful Irish whiskeys, including Jameson, Powers, Redbreast, Midleton Very Rare, the Spot family and Method and Madness.

The new distillery will be situated on a 55-acre site adjacent and connected to the world-famous Midleton Distillery.

Subject to a successful planning application and meeting all licensing requirements, the new distillery will distil pot still and grain whiskey with grain intake, brewing, fermentation, and distillation facilities incorporated into the new 55-acre site.

The new distillery is expected to generate up to 100 highly skilled new jobs for the region over time once the distillery is operational in 2025, and circa 800 jobs during the construction phase.

Irish Distillers recently announced plans to invest €50 million to fund projects aimed at transforming Midleton Distillery into a carbon neutral operation by the end of 2026 by leveraging breakthrough emissions reducing technology to reduce energy use. In line with Irish Distillers’ ambition, the new distillery will also be a carbon neutral operation.

The new site will also incorporate various environmental projects which will be developed in order to enhance biodiversity and protect local wildlife.

An expanded distilling capacity is expected to increase Midleton Distillery’s requirement for barley and malted barley by up to 50%, which the company intends to source from Irish farmers.

The Irish Distillers project team is partnering with engineering and architecture consultancy firm Arup on the initial design and with Harry Walsh Associates on the planning application. Irish Distillers is engaging with all relevant stakeholders and consulting with community groups in the locality as part of the pre-planning process.

A planning application is expected to be submitted to Cork County Council towards the end of 2022 and, if successful, construction will commence in 2023 with plans for the distillery to be operational in 2025.

Tommy Keane, Operations Director at Irish Distillers, said: “Whiskey has been distilled in Midleton for almost 200 years and as such it has always been our desire to secure the future of distilling in East Cork. We are delighted to announce plans for a new distillery connected to the famed Midleton Distillery. We are incredibly proud of Midleton’s well-earned reputation as the home of some of the world’s most loved Irish whiskeys, and the announcement – along with the ongoing €13 million redevelopment of our visitor experience – will cement Midleton’s reputation as a world-renowned whiskey destination. Through the delivery of this distillery, we also plan to play our part in supporting Ireland’s decarbonising strategy while also aligning with Pernod Ricard’s commitment to follow a Net Zero trajectory by 2050.”

Leo Clancy, CEO Enterprise Ireland, said:“Midleton is synonymous with whiskey, and is globally renowned for its products.  Enterprise Ireland is delighted to work with Irish Distillers, and we warmly welcome their announcement about their ambitious new €250 million investment plan which will deliver a new distillery that will be a carbon neutral operation.  This planned investment will also have an important impact on the local community, by creating up to 100 new jobs in East Cork, as well as hundreds more during the construction phase.  It also demonstrates Irish Distillers continued long-term commitment to Ireland and their sustainability ambitions.”

The distillery will employ innovative Mechanical Vapor Recompression (MVR) technology which will see a closed loop system capture, compress and recycle waste heat in the distilling process. Renewable sources of energy, including green hydrogen and biogas will be used to power the distillery. Irish Distillers has partnered with local experts at EI-H2 to explore opportunities to source green hydrogen and carried out extensive research in partnership with MaREI, the SFI Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine, hosted by University College Cork, to determine the biomethane potential of the by-products of distillation and design the required anaerobic digestion process necessary to produce biogas. Irish Distillers will also partner with StanTech on wastewater treatment and biogas production.

In addition to its commitments to eliminate scope 1 and scope 2 emissions across both distilleries, Irish Distillers has also committed to working with suppliers on projects and initiatives to reduce scope 3 emissions across all areas of its business including raw materials, dry goods, transportation, logistics and freight.