Can you really see a whiskey drinker ordering a Clontarf and coke? Pat Rigney and Dave Phelan can. This time last year, the former Gilbeys boys launched Boru, an Irish vodka, and today they are launching a new range of Irish whiskeys called Clontarf.
"Whiskey can be a bit precious," says Mr Rigney, signalling his hopes that their product will reach a wide market. There are three different whiskeys in the range, a single malt, a blended reserve and a core brand simply called Clontarf Irish Whiskey. All are distilled at the Cooley Distillery in Carlingford, Co Louth. The company hopes the distilling process, which includes ageing in bourbon barrels and filtering through oak charcoal, will give the brand an edge and, specifically, make it appeal to bourbon drinkers who comprise a growing sector of the whiskey market.
The market is highly competitive, with strong brand recognition among consumers.
Powers is number one in the Irish market followed by Jameson, but Mr Rigney is confident of his company's ability to build an entirely new brand.
"You can build a new brand from scratch," he says, "but your product has to be different and you have to have strong packaging." The packaging for Boru was so distinctive that it won several awards for its designer, Ms Gillian Murphy, and she is responsible for the Clontarf packaging, which again includes a triple pack of mini-bottles where consumers can taste the three whiskeys. The whiskey market in the Republic is growing at between 3 per cent and 4 per cent a year with Jameson, an Irish Distillers brand, growing at 8 per cent - the same rate as the white spirit market.
According to Mr Adrian Keogh, marketing director at Irish Distillers, the company spends £1 million (€1.27 million) a year supporting Jameson and it is currently running a press and poster campaign emphasising the cosmopolitan appeal of the brand.
Clontarf will have a promotional budget of £100,000 for its six-month introductory period and that will be spent almost entirely below the line in public relations and via in-store and in-pub product tastings.
Without the showcase traditionally offered by duty-free shops, the brand will have to work hard on the ground to get its name and look established. Mr Keogh echoes Mr Rigney's thoughts that the whiskey market, despite its conservative image, is open to new products provided that they are from a prestigious distillery and are perceived to have, in Mr Keogh's words, "their own story to tell".
Six weeks ago Irish Distillers introduced a new range of Millennium whiskeys, which range from a £25 bottle of Powers to a £500 bottle of Midleton.
In total, the initiative represents consumer sales worth £5 million and already the £500 bottles have sold out, with sales throughout the range comfortably exceeding projections.
