Q&A: Cooley and the gang

You predicted last year that Irish whiskey sales and the category's image in the UK would be re-invigorated over the following months. Has this happened?

Well, Jameson is up to about 220,000 cases in the UK now, from about 150,000 a couple of years ago.Two trends were happening last year. There was an overall movement back to brown spirits such as bourbon, and there was a move within brown spirits towards speciality drinks - cocktails and Irish whiskey. I find it so unusual that young men and women are drinking in cocktail bars.

The number of late-20s people who are knowledgeable about whiskeys shows a huge change in the 20 years I've been at Cooley.It is not a priority for [Jameson owner] Pernod Ricard though. The UK whiskey market is still very stodgy. It's slow-growing compared with other parts of the world.

What role has Pernod Ricard with Jameson, and Diageo with Bushmills, played in this? And what of the role of Cooley and other smaller brands?​

From July 1, Bushmills started a massive worldwide marketing push, and Jameson's growth has been very strong. Their strategies have been simple - reintroduce a well-known brand name back into the trade and reinvigorate it before starting marketing. It is a push, rather than a pull strategy.We do not yet know if the revival is a Jameson revival or an Irish whiskey revival. However, there is no doubt that the growth of Jameson and Bushmills is giving big exposure to Irish whiskey, and that is filtering over to the third biggest product, Tullamore.We are struggling in the UK. Our speciality brands are doing well, the £50 to £100-a-bottle brands - the Connemara, the Tyrconnel single malts with finishes. The mainline brand, Kilbeggan is struggling. We just don't have the distribution in the UK. We went for wholesaler and not distributors, and they are order-takers and not order-makers.

You grew up from the age of 14 collecting payments for your father's money-lending business in Marino, north of Dublin. How did this tough upbringing prepare you for your career in whiskey?​

If you're asked to do something for family, you just do it. That's a weakness as much as anything. If I believe it has to be done, I tend to stick with it, even if it's the wrong decision. I could sell Cooley today, but if you've a task to do you stick to the task. The second thing is huge self confidence.

What conclusions did you draw from your thesis into the Irish whiskey market while you were at Harvard?​

I found that Irish whiskey marketing in the States was an absolute failure. The Irish-Americans had a negative attitude towards Irish whiskey. They thought it was a heavy drink that gave you a hangover. I wonder if there is some of that in the UK. The Irish who came to the UK did not have a positive attitude towards Irish whiskey.The category had missed the boat by not going for blended whiskey in the 1960s. The consequence of looking at the whole structure was that I thought I could build a distillery and run it better than the existing distilleries. That's what we're still trying to do.

It's The Publican's round. What are you drinking?​

A Diet Coke. I'm tee total - I have never tasted the whiskey!CV

1950s - Grew up working for father's money-lending business​

1963 - Won university scholarship to study commerce at University College, Dublin. Followed this with Masters in economics​

1969 - Became involved in "resource exploration", eventually becoming founder and chairman of a number of AIM-listed diamond, gold and mineral mining companies​

1970 - Doctorate at Harvard in international finance, including thesis on Irish whiskey​

1970 - Took control of money-lending business​

1987 - Bought Cooley. Began distilling in the Cooley mountains on the border with Northern Ireland, and operating the Kilbeggan distillery, outside Dublin, as a warehouse and​ cooperage. Currently distills 600,000 cases a year​

2007 - Small-scale "boutique" distilling revived at Kilbeggan to celebrate distillery's 250th anniversary​