FDBusiness.com

Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard has reported that sales growth of its Jameson brand accelerated appreciably in the first six months of its current financial, with volumes growing by 16% to 3.17m cases, to produce one of its best performances ever. As it has done over the past decade, the sales value of Jameson grew faster than volume, achieving an impressive 18% growth. Indeed, premiumisation of the Irish whiskey brand with consistent value ahead of volume growth is a key objective of Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard.

“This six month period has proven to be one of the most dynamic and successful periods ever for Jameson, as it reached two key milestones on its journey to become one of the world’s top spirit brands. Globally, Jameson sold over three million cases in 2010, and one million of these are consumed in its most important export market, the USA,” comments Alexandre Ricard, chairman and chief executive of Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard.

Alexandre Ricard, chairman and chief executive of Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard.

He continues: “The progress of Jameson within the Pernod Ricard family of brands has been one of our company’s great success stories, growing from 466,000 cases when Irish Distillers joined Pernod Ricard in 1988, to 1 million in 1996, 2 million in 2006 and achieving sales of over 3 million in 2010.”

To satisfy the growing global demand for the brand, Irish Distillers is planning a major expansion of its warehousing and maturation capacity in 2010. This development will be located at Dungourney, County Cork, subject to the normal planning process which is already under way.