IDG's whiskeys selling briskly

Sales of Irish Distillers Group's (IDG) whiskey brands are running at over €230 million per year, according to the company's chief executive, Mr Richard Burrows.

IDG's French parent, Pernod Ricard, yesterday revealed that the Irish company's leading seller, Jameson Irish Whiskey, is its fastest-growing brand. Figures released by the group in Paris show that sales of the brand increased by 12 per cent in the first half of 2004.

Mr Burrows told The Irish Times yesterday that it was now selling about two million cases a year, compared to 400,000 when Pernod took over IDG in 1988. Both Jameson and its other brand, Powers, sell for €120 a case on average, net of excise and duties.Between them, they account for 2.6 million of the 3 million cases sold by IDG.

Its other brands, Paddy and Bushmills, account for the remainder and sell at €110 a case on average. On this basis, the Irish company generates sales of €232 million a year.

The group closed its bottling facility on the North Mall in Cork recently, with the loss of 20 jobs. The company sold the site to a partnership of University College Cork and nearby Mercy Hospital for a figure believed to be around €20 million.

Mr Burrows said yesterday that IDG had no further plans to cut its workforce, which is now based mainly in its distilling facilities in Midleton, Co Cork.

"We decided to close North Mall after Cantrell & Cochrane took back the bottling of Tullamore Dew, which we had been doing at the site," he said.

In a half-year trading statement released to the Paris Bourse yesterday, Pernod Ricard said sales in the first half of 2004 grew slightly on 2003 to €1.53 billion from €1.5 billion.