John Teeling, the whiskey entrepreneur who founded the Great Northern Distillery outside Dundalk, Co Louth, said the company is already selling blended whiskey product into India that has been specially formulated and branded for that market. It’s being imported by local partners there.
Mr Teeling said he was previously concerned that Great Northern Distillery was primarily focused on the US market. Now he says that India and the broader Asian market – including countries such as China, Japan, Vietnam and Thailand – could become significant markets for Irish whiskey.
In 2023, India’s imports of distilled spirits – dominated by scotch, with a 69pc share – were worth $572m (€480m).
One of the brands that has been developed by a local Indian company for the market there is Irish Spirit, which is provided by Great Northern Distillery. It hit the shelves last September.
Another is called Aodh and was launched late last year, again supplied by Great Northern Distillery. The brand was developed and is owned by ABD Maestro, a subsidiary of stock market-listed Allied Blenders and Distillers that focuses on super-premium and luxury spirits.
Mr Teeling said the foray into India for Great Northern Distillery is still “toe in the water stuff”, but that orders so far for the market would likely be for a total of about 200,000 bottles for a year.
“It’s very much a learning curve for them and for us,” he said. “But I think the Indian market for Irish whiskey could end up being as big as the US market.”
A 750ml bottle of Aodh sells for the equivalent of about €36 in India – an affordable price bracket for many of its growing professional class, but well out of reach for most workers there.
Even with the tariff reduction, Mr Teeling says Irish whiskey will remain a premium product in India.
India is already the second-biggest market for Irish whiskey, all because of Jameson
“I think this is very positive,” he said. “Irish whiskey in India will still be expensive and you’re still going for the upper premium, super premium or ultra-premium bracket, but it’s very positive for Irish whiskey.”
He added: “All you need is one or two successful Irish products to follow on from Jameson. India is already the second-biggest market for Irish whiskey, all because of Jameson.”
Jameson, owned by Pernod Ricard, has been “fabulously successful” in India in the past number of years, according to Mr Teeling. In 2026, Jameson will sell an estimated 1.4 million cases into India. Total worldwide Jameson sales in Pernod Ricard’s last financial year hit 11 million cases.
“We made the right decision a year-and-a-half ago to go to India,” Mr Teeling said.
He said the companies that have developed the Irish whiskey brands for the Indian market are “very sophisticated”.
“We’ve one product that is being finalised and there have been focus groups, multiple meetings, designers involved and all the rest,” he added.
Indian companies want the cache of selling product that has been bottled in Ireland, even though that raises the price of the product. Mr Teeling said it is likely that makes the finished product as much as eight times more expensive than if it had been bottled in India.
“We have one product that has shipped to India and will be bottled there and that’s significantly quicker too,” he added.
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