Wm Grant aquires Tullamore Dew

[Rob Allanson]

Premium spirits business and independent family distillers, William Grant & Sons Holdings Ltd has announced that it has entered into a binding agreement for the purchase of the shares and assets of C&C Group plc's spirits and liqueur business for €300m. The purchase will include the C&C portfolio of Irish spirits and liqueur brands, Tullamore Dew, Carolans, Frangelico* and Irish Mist.

C&C Group is required to obtain shareholder approval for the disposal. Subject to that condition, we expect the transaction to be completed on 30 June 2010. There are no other conditions for the sale, although consultation will be carried out with the employees within the business and any others who are affected by the transition.

Stella David, Chief Executive Officer of William Grant & Sons said: "William Grant & Sons has a rich history in Scotch whisky dating back to 1886, and we have been looking to further develop our non-Scotch portfolio. Irish whiskey is a natural fit and C&C's spirits business provides a unique opportunity to acquire a number of significant brands and enter the highly desirable and dynamic Irish whiskey category.

"We shall make significant investment in Ireland and invest in the long-term value growth of the brands, including Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey which, at 600,000 cases, and given its potential, will become a core global brand in our business," she added.

[Pure Pot Head]

Interesting times. A Scottish family own what might be a rather quaint Irish whiskey brand but a pretty big one it has to be said. So the Scots are back over here looking for Irish whiskey to sell as they were two centuries ago when the likes of John Jameson came over with the same intention. Fascinating. It has to be a good sign for Irish Whiskey though. Perhaps the real rennaissance of Irish whiskey is only just beginning. I suspect Grants are looking down the line and can see that in ten to twenty years, Irish whskey is going to represent a pretty sizable chunk of what willl be an enormous whiskey pie. Clever move. I believe they're talking about building a distillery. Even cleverer move. It might cost a bit to build now, but to have your own distillery in Ireland could well turn out to be an incredibly lucrative decision in the future as the world's 'celtic' whiskey market splits' more and more between the declining Scotch category and the rampant Irish whiskey category. Like I siad, interesting times.

[Danmag]

I agree that it is interesting times, but I would take issue with the declining Scotch Whisky category comment. The figures show growth year on year though I would expect ALL categories, including Irish, to show stagnation or decline for the past year and probably the next couple. The people who will really feel the pinch will be the independent bottlers who have no distillery tie-up, or who haven't built theirs yet

[Pure Pot Head]

I was really talking about these current times Danmag, not forever. For the record, 2009 results for Jameson were just released here in the newspapers. +11% Net Sales. I believe Scotch was flat or down overall but some brands did okay. But that's understandable when you're the dominant player in a tough economic environment and consumers can trade back to cheaper products. I strongly believe that with several major new markets opening up over the next twenty years there will be hundreds of thousands, in fact millions, literally millions of additional cases of Scotch whiskey that will need to be produced and supplied. There are many more decades of Scotch sales growth to come I believe, so no need to worry imho. And Irish of course is set to grow even faster which is the key point in the context of the Grants venture. Any Scotch decline or dip is purely short term. Irish should keep outperforming the market by virtue of coming off a much smaller base, reappearing in markets where it was once extremely popular in the first place anyway, and having so much head room to grow generally. And of course it represents an alternative taste for consumers so it's naturally going to convert or draw it's own chunk of fans but I'm sure we all agree that that is something to be welcomed. Isn't it fantastic that one of the great historical styles is back from the brink? We nearly lost it altogether remember.

[Aidan]

I wonder is it their plan to piggyback on the Irish name or the Irish style? If the plan is to build a distillery in Clonmel, will the produce the pot still/pot still blend? I really hope so, but the alternative isn't too bad either.

They paid a lot of money for the brand, so they must see a lot of growth down the line.

[Pure Pot Head]

I've heard all sorts of rumours. One is that they will actually move their corporate head offcie to Ireland and avail of a lower tax rate. The other is that they will build a grain distillery from which they can produce white spirts for their white spirits brands but also with the capabiity to produce grain whiskey. Which leads me to think that they're probably not thinking about building pot stills. As the bulk of Tullamore Dew is grain whiskey anyway, they would only have to buy a little bit of pot still whiskey from Jameson or Cooley even. So it could be quite an efficient little proposition. We'll have to wait and see I guess.

[Pure Pot Head]

This is the story in the Scotsman relating to a possible distillery build in Clonmel.

http://business.scotsman.com/business/W ... 6267052.jp

Pots

[Danmag]

Interesting little story that one in The Scotsman, unfortunately not much hard information and even some of that was misleading, A.B. is a subsidiary of In-Bev. As for building a distillery in Clonmel. It would make sense for them to make the spirit for themselves, but wouldn't it be better if they actually returned production to Tullamore? Imagine what the reaction would be if they decided to stop making Glenfiddich in Dufftown and started making it at Ailsa Bay in Troon instead?
What I would hope they may consider would be to build a Malt distillery some where in Ireland and expand that particular section of the market.

[Aidan]

[quote="Danmag"]Interesting little story that one in The Scotsman, unfortunately not much hard information and even some of that was misleading, A.B. is a subsidiary of In-Bev. As for building a distillery in Clonmel. It would make sense for them to make the spirit for themselves, but wouldn't it be better if they actually returned production to Tullamore? Imagine what the reaction would be if they decided to stop making Glenfiddich in Dufftown and started making it at Ailsa Bay in Troon instead?
What I would hope they may consider would be to build a Malt distillery some where in Ireland and expand that particular section of the market.[/quote]

Not sure of all the details, but Bulmers is based in Clonmel, I think. So maybe they are inheriting some infrastructure from there? I could have this totally wrong.

I wouldn't mind a malt distillery, but there are hundreds of malt distilleries in the world and only one real pure pot still distillery.

That said, Cooley are going to make pot still in Kilbeggan, and the new Dingle Distillery will also make pure pot still.

[Pure Pot Head]

[quote="Danmag"]I wouldn't mind a malt distillery, but there are hundreds of malt distilleries in the world and only one real pure pot still distillery. [/quote]


I have to agree with Aidan on this one. We have enough single malt producers all over the world including two in Ireland already so it would be great to see more Pure Pot Still produced but I can't see these guys doing it to be frank.

C&C currently ship in primarily grain whiskey produced at Midleton and bottle it in Clonmel under the Tullamore Dew name so the bottling plant and warehousing is there already. I'd imagine a new production facility making grain whiskey and grain neutral spirit could be constructed relatively quickly at that location. It would still take some years though for the stock from this facility to mature so all in all, we're stilll some years away from Tullamore Dew actually making its own whiskey. They'll have to buy in from Cooley (which will be the end of Triple Distillation for them) or as more likely, continue to buy off Jameson for at least another five years plus. And, if they just produce a simple grain whiskey with a minimal bit of Pot Still blend, will it be worth the wait???

Five years is a long time in this game and the world could evolve in all sorts of directions. Building a distillery and bearing all the costs ones self and not meeting sales projections could be a disaster. In five years time, Grants might find that other Irish Whiskies have come into play more and it wont be simply a case of chipping away at Jameson alone anymore. They may find themselves up against a strongly Pot Stilled sleeping giant like Powers should IDL finally let the leash off. And of course, not building ones own distillery and relying on others can restict your freedom to grow volumes at ones own pace. I'm really intrigued by this one. Can't wait to see what happens. Definitely the Irish Whiskey story of the year.

[Aidan]

Cooley have produced triple distilled whiskey too. They haven't released any of it yet, though. Not that I know of, anyway.

[Pure Pot Head]

[quote="Aidan"]Cooley have produced triple distilled whiskey too. They haven't released any of it yet, though. Not that I know of, anyway.[/quote]

Ahh! I didn't know that. Excellent. Now we're rocking. I wonder can they make enough to supply Tullamore/Grants! They make Tullamore Dew Single Malt I believe already.

[Aidan]

I'm not sure, but I'm sure if they had to they could increase production. Actually, one of the reasons they have not put the old Daly Tullamore stills into operation in Kilbeggan is that the Cooley plant isn't anywhere near full capacity production.