IN THE CHAIR
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with Paul Wickham, General Manager, Midleton Distillery at Irish Distillers What does it mean to you and Irish Distillers to have won the overall Cork Company of the Year award for 2020? We are truly honoured and humbled to receive this prestigious award. This award is even more special as it has been awarded by our home county of Cork where, since 1825, we have been distilling and maturing some of the world’s most well-known and successful premium Irish whiskeys. This award is a tribute to the tireless dedication and excellence of all the craftsmen and women at Midleton and Dungourney, along with all the people who have worked with us through the centuries, whose hard work and passion has put us on the world stage. What do you think have been the key attributes to Irish Distillers’ success and growth? The key to our success and growth has undoubtably been our on ongoing innovation, coupled with an increased focus on the presentation of Irish whiskey as an exciting component in mixed drinks and cocktails. This has resulted in Irish whiskey being embraced by more diverse consumer segments in markets across the world. The potential for growth is infinite as we continue to deliver quality, innovation-led, products, building on our reputation for excellence. We have invested almost €350 million since 2012 in our Midleton Distillery, Dungourney maturation site, Micro Distillery, Irish Whiskey Academy and Archive in Co. Cork to facilitate the global growth of Irish whiskey. Tell us about the significance of Irish Distillers’ innovations in recent years. Our continued dedication to innovation has allowed us to penetrate new markets and grow Irish whiskey sales across our portfolio. The Micro Distillery in Midleton is an innovation and experimentation hub, where we train the up-and-coming distillers of
What are Irish Distillers doing to promote sustainable initiatives and practices? tomorrow while experimenting with new distillates and mash bills. In recent years we’ve introduced innovations across our entire portfolio, creating new and successful whiskeys like Method and Madness and Jameson Caskmates in the process. Describe the culture within Irish Distillers. Any success that we have enjoyed has only been achieved thanks to our highly engaged, passionate workforce and high-performance culture. To deliver on our vision to be makers of the world’s most enjoyed whiskeys, we have invested heavily in developing our values and embedding them throughout the business. We have established a cross functional team which is committed to maintaining and improving our corporate culture and addressing feedback from employee surveys. Our mission is to mobilise a new generation to use their ideas to drive success in the workplace and positive change in the world.
Our responsibility to society and the environment is central to our drive for competitiveness. Investing €100million since 2012 to reduce our environmental impact, we have achieved a 33% reduction in energy use, 28% reduction in water use and zero waste to landfill. In 2019, we launched our 2030 Sustainability and Responsibility Roadmap, based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which will build on our past successes to ambitiously push our business further. We strive to be sustainable and responsible at every step of our production – from grain to glass. Outline the future plans and what’s next for Midleton Distillery. The world is our oyster. Led by Jameson we are incredibly proud that our brands are driving the global renaissance of Irish whiskey. As the category leader, one of the ongoing challenges for Irish Distillers is to ensure that we have the capacity to keep pace with the growth of our whiskeys. In order to sustain this growth, we are constantly investing in our capacity to meet future demand for our products.
Outline the impact that that the Midleton Distillery has on the local economy. The distillery is synonymous with the region and is, literally, central to the town of Midleton. We employ 245 people in East Cork, making us one the biggest employers in the area. Our barley comes from farms located within 100 miles of the distillery and our water is sourced from the nearby Dungourney river. Jameson Distillery Midleton welcomed almost 150,000 visitors last year. It is the number one tourist attraction in the area with many visitors coming to East Cork specifically to visit the distillery. This also provides business to many hotels, restaurants and retail outlets in the area.
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