Suntory Global Spirits has lined up plans to shift the bottling of its Irish whiskey brands to Scotland and Spain.
A report in The Irish Independent yesterday said the multinational intends to transfer the bottling capabilities out of its Cooley Distillery in the north-east of the country. When contacted by Global Drinks Intel today, a spokesperson for the group confirmed the news story, adding that the rest of the facility’s operations would be unaffected.
Through its Beam Inc predecessor, SGS acquired Cooley, along with the Connemara, Kilbeggan and Tyrconnell Irish whiskey brands, in 2011.
Subject to the outcome of a consultation with the 13 employees likely to be affected, the bottling of the brands will move to SGS’s sites in Springburn near Glasgow and in Segovia in central Spain. The company expects the transition to take place early next year.
The spokesperson underlined the group’s ongoing commitment to its Irish whiskey operations, flagging that the two potential new homes for the bottling side are both sizable operations in their own right.
Earlier this week, about half of the staff at Moet Hennessy’s bottling facility for Hennessy cognac went on strike as the company considered the trial of bulk shipping of the brand’s VSOP expression from France to China for in-market bottling. The proposal is in response to recently-imposed tariffs by Chinese authorities on grape-based spirits from the European Union.
