October 2016: Jack Teeling, managing director, Teeling Whiskey

The company Jack Teeling founded in 2012 continues to shine on a national stage as it was awarded with three accolades at the 2016 Irish Whiskey Awards in October.

The Teeling Trinity range of Irish whiskeys all won Gold, while the Teeling Single Grain won Best in Class and the Teeling Small Batch scooped the top prize for Irish whiskeys under €60: Success at this year’s Irish Whiskey Awards brings the total number of awards won by Teeling Whiskey to over 90 in the past three years alone.

Indeed, it’s been a stellar year for Teeling Whiskey. Earlier this year, the company reigned supreme at the World Whiskies Awards, which is a premier celebration of the finest whiskies across the globe. Teeling Whiskey triumphed in two ‘World’s Best’ categories and walked away with a clean sweep of Gold Medals at the Spirits Masters Awards 2016, the International Wine and Spirits Competition and the Ultimate Spirits Challenge 2016.

Commenting on such a high level of industry approval, founder Jack Teeling said: “Our ethos of quality and innovation ensures that what goes into every bottle of Teeling Whiskey is something we strive to perfect every day. As such it is very rewarding for our efforts to be consistently recognised by both domestic and international experts. Last night’s award wins, coupled with the other international accolades that we have picked up this year, allows us to continue to lead the renaissance for independent Irish whiskey producers.”

Irish whiskey has now infiltrated US popular culture and has become the fastest-growing spirit in the world in the last 20 years

The Teeling Whiskey Company was founded by Jack Teeling in 2012 to revive the old Teeling family trademark of Irish whiskey and bring craft distilling back to the city of Dublin.

His brother Stephen Teeling joined him in 2013 as sales and marketing director and is a co-owner in the business. The Teeling Whiskey Company has quickly become the leading independent Irish whiskey company through a selection of unique handcrafted small-batch Irish whiskeys.

The company has helped transform the heart of Dublin’s Liberties over the past year by investing €10m in the Teeling Whiskey Distillery, which started operation in 2015 as the first new distillery in Dublin for over 125 years, and has taken in over 100,000 visitors since opening in June last year.

Teeling Whiskey is now exported to over 40 different overseas markets and is the fastest-growing premium Irish whiskey in Ireland.

AMERICAN MARKET

Recently published accounts for the company show that revenues increased to €24.58m (with a pre-tax profit of €2.95m) in 2015. Irish whiskey is performing very well on the whole, with market share set to grow by 300% by 2030 to 12%.

Speaking with Business & Finance earlier this year, Teeling offered his thoughts about the industry’s recent resurgence. “Everything is cyclical and it is Irish whiskey’s turn to shine,” he said. “Irish whiskey for decades was in the doldrums, while Scotch whiskey stole our thunder. We dropped from having 60% of the global exports of whiskey during the golden days of the 19th century to just 2% by the middle of the 20th century.

“However, since the 1990s Irish whiskey has turned a significant corner. The US has been the real star in the rejuvenation of Irish whiskey, enjoying high double-digit growth from the early 1990s. Irish whiskey has now infiltrated US popular culture and has become the fastest-growing spirit in the world in the last 20 years.”