W., the world’s second largest Irish whiskey brand, is capitalising on its strong growth in the US market, and the opening of its new distillery this September, with the appointment of four new Irish graduates as brand ambassadors for key American cities. The talented recruits will head to New York, Chicago, Texas and San Francisco later this month to begin an 18 month programme of educating and advocating Irish whiskey and Tullamore D.E.W. in particular.The successful candidates, Mary-Jade Hynes, Conor Neville, Eimear Kelleher and Katie O’Donoghue were chosen from 1,300 post-graduate applicants for their blend of confidence, charisma and commercial focus to promote the brand to an American audience that has fallen in love with Irish whiskey. This unique opportunity for the talented Irish graduates was offered through the IBEC/Bord Bia Export Orientation Programme (EOP).
Caspar MacRae, Global Brand Director, Tullamore D.E.W, comments: “We are delighted to welcome these exceptionally talented recruits in to the Tullamore D.E.W. team. This is a very exciting year for us with the opening of our new distillery this September and the brand going from strength to strength around the world.”
He continues: “In the US alone, Tullamore D.E.W. grew 22% last year and is the world’s second largest Irish whiskey selling close to 11 million bottles per annum. Supported by Tullamore D.E.W.’s US marketing and distribution infrastructure, our new graduates will play a pivotal role in educating our US trade partners and consumers about Irish whiskey, and rolling out our marketing initiatives including our current ‘Parting Glass’ global campaign.”
The IBEC Export Orientation Programme (EOP) combines an International Business Diploma with a placement. It is renowned as Ireland’s longest-running and most successful graduate placement programme providing graduates of all disciplines with an invaluable introduction to international business. Tullamore D.E.W. already has three Ambassadors based in New York and Florida. The successful placement of these candidates brings the total number to seven.
The new €35 million Tullamore distillery will open this September bringing Tullamore D.E.W. whiskey production back to the town after 60 years. The annual production of the new distillery will be 1.84Mla of triple distilled pot still and malt whiskeys – the equivalent of about 1.5m cases.
