Irish Distillers to create new $250m distillery in Midleton
The distillery will produce whiskeys including Jameson, Powers, Redbreast, Midleton Very Rare, the Spot family and Method and Madness.
The new distillery will distil pot still and grain whiskey with grain intake, brewing, fermentation, and distillation facilities incorporated into the new 55-acre site. The expanded distilling capacity is expected to increase Midleton Distillery’s requirement for barley and malted barley by up to 50%, which the company intends to source from Irish farmers.
The new facility will generate around 100 jobs for the region over time once the distillery is operational in 2025, and circa 800 jobs during the construction phase.
The new facility will be situated on a 55-acre site connected to the existing Midleton Distillery (which recently announced plans to become carbon neutral by the end of 2026).
Carbon neutral facility
Like the neighboring Midleton Distillery, the new facility will be a carbon neutral operation.
The distillery will use Mechanical Vapor Recompression (MVR) technology, which will see a closed loop system capture, compress and recycle waste heat in the distilling process.
Renewable sources of energy, including green hydrogen and biogas will be used to power the distillery.
A partnership with EI-H2 will explore opportunities to source green hydrogen and carry out research in partnership with MaREI, the SFI Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine, hosted by University College Cork, to determine the biomethane potential of the by-products of distillation and design the required anaerobic digestion process necessary to produce biogas.
Irish Distillers will also partner with StanTech on wastewater treatment and biogas production.
Outside eliminating scope 1 and scope 2 emissions across both distilleries, Irish Distillers will work with suppliers on projects and initiatives to reduce scope 3 emissions across other areas of its business including raw materials, dry goods, transportation, logistics and freight.
Nodjame Fouad, Chairman and CEO at Irish Distillers said: "We are immensely proud of the continued strong performance of our full portfolio of Irish whiskeys, led by Jameson which sold over 10 million cases in our 2022 financial year.
"The new distillery will be a beautiful, landmark development with sustainability at its core and will serve to further demonstrate our commitment to Midleton and East Cork, generating more jobs for the region and further driving recognition of Midleton Distillery as the beating heart of Irish whiskey.”
Irish Distillers is working with engineering and architecture consultancy firm Arup on the initial design and with Harry Walsh Associates on the planning application.
A planning application is expected to be submitted to Cork County Council towards the end of 2022 and, if successful, construction will commence in 2023.
