On these pages, I have spoken several times about the ongoing crisis in Scottish whisky, which is going through a period that in some ways resembles the whisky loch of the last century, and the bad news continues to pile up: BenRiach is set to cease operations shortly, and Ian MacLeod is struggling, especially after the huge investments made in the revival of Rosebank.
But, as they say, if Athens cries but Sparta doesn’t laugh: the crisis is affecting the entire alcohol sector and whisky in particular, and even Ireland is not immune.
At the end of last year, Waterford went into receivership after unsuccessfully seeking a solution to its liquidity crisis, temporarily halting production and sales, with a proposal to sell on the market that went unanswered last April. And that was just the beginning.
A few days ago, Powerscourt, the distillery behind the Fercullen label, also requested the intervention of the same bankruptcy trustee (Interpath Advisory), despite having secured a €25 million loan in 2023 to finance expansion projects.
And the list of distilleries in difficulty continues: last April, Killarney also resorted to receivership, Roe&Co (owned by Diageo) in Dublin halted production, and the Blackwater distillery managed to obtain a substantial reduction in its debts, largely with banks, in order to keep going.
With the positive trend of the last years and the sales “surge” that occurred during the pandemic, many distilleries decided to invest by borrowing from banks and financiers, who are now presenting the bill, and the quickest way to recover a debt is to buy the business directly: the fact that there were expressions of interest (which later fell through) from companies outside the industry at the Waterford auction speaks volumes in this regard.
Irish whiskey was in the midst of a renaissance, and Trump’s tariff war was certainly the latest nail in the coffin of its expansion… but, as history shows, there have always been deep crises and equally spectacular recoveries. We will just have to count how many victims will remain on the field.