Cooley Distillery returned to profits last year, but the chairman, Dr John Teeling, has warned shareholders it will be some time before any return is generated for investors.

"After 12 years of very hard work and an investment of millions, we made a paltry profit of £210,000. The return to investors is poor and likely to remain so for some time," Dr Teeling states bluntly.

Even that £210,000 (€266,836) profit overstates the performance of the core whiskey business as £90,000 of it came from rental income, with Cooley having operating profits of just £143,000 on sales of £5.15 million. However, the profit does compare with a loss of £39,000 in 1997.

Dr Teeling does not mince his words about Cooley's prospects and says it will now take 15 years from Cooley's inception in 1987 before there is a payback - indicating that shareholders will have to wait another three years before they see any return.

He added that the profits being generated so far "certainly do not justify the £10 million invested in Cooley to date".

More than 300 people invested in Cooley in 1987-89, but shares placed at £3.15 each in 1989 now trade at little more than £1 "and even then it is difficult to find buyers for more than a few thousand shares". Dr Teeling says Cooley is still some years away from being able to list on a stock exchange.

Despite these warnings, Dr Teeling believes there is hope for Cooley investors.

In the coming years, he says, the rarity of its products and marketing investment will begin to show a return.

No further significant capital investments are envisaged and the last BES investors in Cooley's sister whiskey-maturing companies have been bought out.

This final £2 million buyout of the BES investors in the maturing companies has left Cooley with total bank debt of £7 million, "well backed by over 20 million bottles of whiskey contained in 35,000 casks in Kilbeggan and Tullamore," says Dr Teeling.

Overall turnover was up almost 27 per cent to £5.15 million, with volume sales up 30 per cent to 1.8 million bottles. There was substantial growth in "own label" sales in the UK and France while higher margin malts showed a double-digit increase.

Branded blended sales, however, made only limited progress, says Dr Teeling.