DUBLIN (Reuters) - The Kentucky-based maker of Jack Daniel's is to try its hand at Irish whiskey in a bid to tap the fastest-growing spirit category in the United States, by investing $50 million (33 million pounds) in a distillery near Dublin.
Brown-Forman (N:BFb), which also produces Canadian Mist whisky and Finlandia vodka, has bought Slane Castle Irish Whiskey Limited, located on the grounds of a castle 30 miles north of the Irish capital, it said in a statement.
Annual sales of Irish whiskey in the United States have increased five-fold to 2.7 million cases over the past decade, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, making it the fastest-growing spirit category over that period. There are 12 bottles in a case.
Sales volumes were up 9.1 percent in the United States last year compared with growth of 2 percent for spirits as a whole, the council said.
Beam Suntory, which makes Jim Beam and Maker's Mark, bought the Cooley Distillery in Ireland for $95 million in 2012.
Brown-Forman said it would open the Slane distillery in late 2016 and start selling Irish whiskeys in the spring of 2017.
Ireland dominated the whiskey market in the United States at the start of the last century, but it lost its prime position following prohibition and the introduction of cheaper blended Scotch.
Scotland now produces over 90 million cases of whisky per year compared with 6.5 million in Ireland.