Diageo opens Roe & Co distillery in Dublin

Ireland | In the former Guinness Power Station at St James’s Gate, Diageo has opened its new, USD 28 million “urban distillery” Roe & Co in June 2019. The plant will distil 14,000 litres of whiskey in every run, with an annual maximum capacity of approximately 500,000 litres of alcohol.

Roe & Co has become the fifth Irish whiskey distillery to operate in Dublin.

Since 21 June 2019, visitors have been welcomed inside Roe & Co. Diageo hopes it will become popular with tourists and expects to attract 50,000 visitors in its first year of operation.

The opening marks a return to Irish whiskey production for Diageo, which sold the Bushmills distillery in Northern Ireland to Mexico’s Jose Cuervo in 2014. Bushmills is undergoing a USD 38 million expansion, which will effectively double its capacity to about 9 million litres of spirit per year.

In 2017 Diageo launched the Roe & Co brand as a blended Irish whiskey named after George Roe, a 19th century whiskey distiller. Diageo currently produces Roe & Co by blending malt and grain whiskies sourced from third parties.

Irish media say that the number of visitors to Irish whiskey distilleries is expected to surpass one million this year. There are 14 whiskey distillery visitor centres with another seven scheduled to join the club this year.