The maker of Drumshanbo Irish Gunpowder Gin increased its revenues and profits this year in spite of having to absorb the impact of tariffs imposed on its imports to the US and the effect of a weak dollar on its business.
In the year to the end of September 2025, The Shed Distillery in Co Leitrim increased its revenue by 4 per cent to €17.99 million.
Its pretax profit, meanwhile, rose to €2.9 million from €2.81 last year, a rise of 3.2 per cent.
“It’s a positive story in a very difficult market,” said Pat Rigney, co-founder of the business with his wife Denise Rigney. “Our volumes would be up more than 10 per cent. But we’d a depreciation of the dollar and some downward price adjustments.
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“The market [overall] is probably down 5-10 per cent, depending on where you are, so we’re up between 15 and 20 per cent versus the market.”
The US is one of Drumshanbo’s biggest markets, with more than 100,000 cases of the gin sold there last year.
Earlier this year, the company said it would spend more than $3 million (€2.6 million) pushing the brand in the US, and recently it took a large billboard on Times Square in New York to advertise the gin.
Mr Rigney had previously estimated that the tariff could, on average, add $2-$3 to the cost of a bottle of the Irish gin.
[ Drumshanbo gin maker increases investment in US market in spite of tariffs hitOpens in new window ]
Drumshanbo’s prices didn’t increase initially to reflect the impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs (10 per cent since April 5th and 15 per cent currently).
At first, the company and its distributor in the US absorbed the tariff hit between them. However, Mr Rigney said five percentage points of the 15 per cent tariff would be passed on to consumers, with the company and its distributor absorbing the rest.
“We’ve grown our top line, our profit and our volume and because we are in this for the long game we can take a view on this that over the next two or three years it will all settle down.
“Hopefully, we get back to zero tariffs, which is where we should be. There were no tariffs on alcohol either way [across the Atlantic] previously.”
Mr Rigney expects 2026 to be “another challenging year” for the spirits sector.
“We have a lot of innovation and collaborations planned. We have a collaboration with [Italian mixologist] Bruno Vanzan, which is going very well and is energising the brand. We’ve just kicked it off in the US.”
Work to more than double its Irish whiskey production is to begin in January while it will also launch its first 10-year-old single pot still Irish whiskey in February.
In addition, it has invested €2 million into expanding its visitor centre, with an Indian theme, at the distillery in Drumshanbo, while also adding to in its bottling facilities.
And it making a sales push into Asia and South America. “We are doubling down and driving on,” Mr Rigney said.
“We’re out in the field, working the market and supporting the distributors. We have increased our investment and our level of innovation and that’s the only way we’re gong to ride out the uncertainty. We see a big opportunity in 2026 and 2027 to accelerate that.”
