Earlier today, 29 August, Pernod announced that Irish Distillers’ Jameson has risen 14% in terms of sales over the past year, and according to Levy this is ‘deteriorating’ the number of independent producers of Irish whiskey.
“While the continued growth in the Irish Whiskey sector and rising global demand for Irish Whiskey is to be welcomed, the fact remains that there continues to be serious questions surrounding the market structure of the Irish whiskey sector that urgently needs to be answered,” said Levy.
“Focus should be drawn to the fact that Irish Distillers, whose primary whiskey product is Jameson, has recently repatriated over €2.8bn of its capital to its French parent, Pernod Ricard.
“This staggering sum clearly demonstrates the dominance of this single market player within the sector, and reinforces the call for opening the Irish whiskey market to allow for increased competition.
“It is clear that this market is booming to the advantage of a small number of market players, and one in particular, and to the detriment of independent players. There needs to be much greater transparency surrounding Pernod Ricard and its dominance of the Irish whiskey category.”
