The Irish Independent reported on Saturday that Diageo’s Roe & Co whiskey is pausing the production process at its distillery. This news marks a worrying trend of Ireland’s larger whiskey brands halting operations. Roe & Co joins the ranks of Tullamore and Midleton Distillers that have either ceased operating or dramatically reduced output.
“In order to optimize resources and support the sustainable future growth of our business, we have made the decision to put an extended pause on distillation at the Roe & Co Distillery,” a spokeswoman for Diageo said, according to the Independent. “The Roe & Co Visitor Center will remain open to the public, and we will continue to blend and package Roe & Co to meet existing and new consumer demand using existing inventory.”
The Spirits Business reported that Diageo intends to help any employees affected by the brand’s temporary closure. Roe & Co is a fairly young whiskey brand, and it debuted in 2017. The brand began distilling on site two years later.
Is Irish whiskey in crisis?
Irish whiskey was on a meteoric rise, and the BBC reported the category experienced “spectacular growth” for about a decade. The outlet reported sales went from 7.3 million cases in 2014 to 15.6 million in 2023. Yet 2025 appears to have been the year when all that changed.
One of the first high-profile closures to make headlines was the loss of Waterford Distillery. The Whiskey Wash reported on the closure and shared that the brand’s founder, industry veteran Mark Reynier, expressed that 2023 was a difficult year for the brand due to lingering effects from the pandemic. Other factors like the cost-of-living crisis, tariff threats, and the war with Ukraine put additional pressures on Irish whiskey brands.
The BBC reported that should punitive tariffs from the United States — one of Irish whiskey’s largest consumers — go through, it might be a catastrophic blow for an already struggling industry. Many distillers within the Irish Whiskey Association expressed concern about the existential threat of tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
“There is no winner in a trade war,” a statement from the organization read. “The imposition of tariffs will impact our businesses and our consumers. Having our sector implicated in this dispute puts jobs, investments and businesses at risk and has the potential to be devastating for Irish Whiskey.”
No responses yet