New Irish Distillers' chief aims to double global sales of the whiskey by 2011, writes Barry O'Halloran

Paul Duffy, the newly appointed chief executive of Irish Distillers Group (IDG), is in something of an unusual situation. There is a very good chance that a brand that the company owned up to recently could become part of another group's bid to get a foothold in the Irish whiskey market.

Guinness's parent, Diageo, got its hands on Bushmills during the summer after IDG's parent, drinks giant Pernod Ricard, took over Allied Domecq.

To satisfy competition rules, the newly-enlarged group had to offload some assets.

One of them was Bushmills, which Diageo snapped up and which now sits in a portfolio of powerful brands that includes Guinness.

IDG's higher profile product, Jameson Irish Whiskey, is one of Pernod Ricard's 14 flag carrying international brands.

The company is planning to put €40 million into a global marketing campaign over the next year, which it is launching on Monday.

Duffy believes that the takeover of Allied Domecq presents an opportunity to bring the Irish brand to new territories.

"We are already focused very much on Jameson, but it [the Bushmills disposal] has brought a further clarity, if that's possible," he says. "It's a very exciting time in terms of what the merger with Allied Domecq will do. It's brought us into new territories, it's brought us into countries where we weren't so strong and it's given us more weight in terms of the portfolio we distribute.

"So all of those things should give us a significant amount of opportunity, we believe, in terms of actually growing Jameson further. We are launching a new advertising campaign and it starts to go live in the UK, one of our key markets, at the back end of October."

Jameson is on target to sell two million cases - 18 million litres - this year. Its former stablemate, Bushmills, will sell about 20 per cent of that, with much of the sales limited to this country.

However, if Diageo has taken it on, it is hardly likely to let it sit there, and that group does know a thing or two about marketing.

So, does its former owner's strategy take account of this, or is IDG worried? Whatever about worry, Duffy makes it clear that it is no longer his concern.

"I've no idea what Diageo is going to do with Bushmills: Diageo has taken that business on and what they do with it is up to them," he says.

He argues that Jameson is not just competing for consumers who drink Irish whiskey, but is fighting for a chunk of a broader market.

"Therefore, our competitive set is not just Bushmills, not by a long shot. It can be bourbons, it can be scotch whiskies, it can be some white spirits.

"That kind of change in focus is what underpins our new campaign."

The company is going after 25-year-old to 40-year-old single, high-spending consumers, with a campaign that promises to be big on aspiration and sophistication.

"It's not just the Irish whiskey drinker," he says.

Irish whiskey, and whiskey generally, is often regarded as anything but sophisticated and aspirational.

However, Duffy argues that the "Irish" element of the drink gives it roots and a heritage that underpins its quality. But the campaign still has to make the leap from a drink that many people associate with an old-style male drinking culture, to those sophisticated - and well-heeled - consumers. "That is the challenge, but Jameson has come to represent contemporary lifestyles in many of our markets," he says.

One of those markets is the US, where Duffy maintains that the drink is growing at 20 per cent a year and accounts for around one in five of all Jameson cases sold.

That translates to about 400,000 cases, but that is in a country that consumes 165 million cases of spirits a year.

Not surprisingly, Duffy believes that this gives Jameson ample opportunity to grow. IDG and Pernod want it to reach one million cases by 2010. A 20 per cent annual growth rate would bring it to within 300,000 cases of that target in 2010.

So if it can add just a few percentage points to its current rate of growth in the US, then it can achieve that target comfortably. "We think that's eminently achievable," Duffy says.

From there, the company believes it can go on to add another million cases a year in the US, which would ultimately make sales in that country alone equal to total current volumes.

The overall target for the Jameson brand is to double sales to four million cases by 2011. Those numbers will actually make the US a key market for the company, as its consumption will grow from one fifth of sales now to 50 per cent in 2011.

IDG clearly expects to sell a lot of Jameson. Since 2000, it has spent €36 million on increasing the capacity of its distilling facility in Midleton, Co Cork, where it produces all its Irish brands. "That is purely on driving capacity to back up these types of sales targets," he says.

It has to invest in extra capacity well ahead of its projected sales targets, as whiskey has to be laid down and matured for several years. The precise amount depends on the product, but there are varieties of Jameson that are laid down for 12 and 18 years.

The other side of that is an advertising and marketing campaign of €40 million a year, around half of which will be spent on media. "We're investing significant amounts of money into the brand," he says. "The media spend and the advertising and promotional spend, that's all behind Jameson. That's a big number in terms of the commitment that Pernod Ricard has in helping us to drive the brand."

Jameson's position in Pernod Ricard was decided not long after it took over the Irish company in the 1980s. (IDG was the subject of a hostile bid from Fyffes, the first ever in the history of the Irish market, but Pernod Ricard's white knight offer succeeded.)

It is one of 20 spirits brands that Pernod has in the top 100. The expanded group produces 77 million cases a year. Alongside this, IDG produces a number of brands that are well known here, but barely register beyond these shores, including Powers and Paddy whiskies, Cork Dry Gin and Huzzar Vodka.

But Jameson, which Duffy says was chosen because of its smooth flavour and the fact that it can be mixed easily, remains the Irish company's big gun.

Its role in the enlarged Pernod Ricard arsenal also looks set to be expanded. The impact of the campaign to be launched next week will tell us a lot.

Unless Diageo has a secret weapon, if Bushmills goes down the same road, it will have a lot of catching up to do.