{"id":11092,"date":"2025-08-20T07:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T07:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/11092\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T07:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T07:54:10","slug":"irish-gin-maker-increases-investment-in-us-market-in-spite-of-tariffs-hit-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/11092\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish gin maker increases investment in US market in spite of tariffs hit \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The maker of Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin<\/a> plans to double down on its investment in the United States<\/a> in spite of the impact of US president Donald Trump\u2019s 15 per cent tariff<\/a> on imported EU goods. <\/p>\n

Speaking to The Irish Times, Pat Rigney, co-founder of the Shed Distillery in Co Leitrim<\/a> with his wife Denise, said the company will invest heavily to grow its position in the US market. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be increasing our investment in marketing, we\u2019ll be increasing our innovation and we\u2019ll be spending more time in the marketplace here. This is not a time for armchair marketing, you have to be on the streets and you have to support your partners,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news for us is that our brand is doing well. We\u2019re now the number four premium gin in the US. We\u2019re growing at 15 per cent. The consumers love the brand, there are pockets of growth in the market and that\u2019s where we\u2019re going to focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company plans to spend more than $3 million (\u20ac2.6 million) pushing the brand in the US, and recently took a large billboard on Times Square in New York to advertise the gin.<\/p>\n

The US is one of Drumshanbo\u2019s biggest markets, with more than 100,000 cases of the gin sold there last year. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Shed Distillery founder Pat Rigney: \u2018We\u2019re very focused on a premium position but also on giving value for money to consumers\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve worked hard to get there from a standing start eight years ago and we\u2019re not going to give it up. There\u2019s a lot of graft and a lot of hard work involved and we\u2019re not afraid of it.\u201d <\/p>\n

The investment will involve some new \u201cexpressions\u201d of its award-winning gin, including a variation created with high-profile Italian mixologist Bruno Vanzan that has secured a listing with Publix, a large US grocery chain. <\/p>\n

There will also be a push on social media, to garner 300 million impressions online, and more boots on the ground to push the brand in the US.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u2018I don\u2019t think the Department of Finance have any respect for the tourism industry\u2019<\/p>\n

Mr Rigney said Drumshanbo\u2019s price tag hasn\u2019t increased to reflect the impact of Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs (10 per cent since April 5th and 15 per cent currently). <\/p>\n

He estimates that the tariff could, on average, add $2-$3 to the cost of a bottle of the Irish gin, although \u201cobviously we will try to minimise that\u201d. <\/p>\n

To date, the Irish distillery has shared the tariff pain with its local distributor but he said prices would have to increase at some point this year. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe went 50-50 with our partner in the US. But that is not sustainable because you\u2019ve got 17 per cent depreciation in the dollar plus a 15 per cent tariff. <\/p>\n

\u201cLike everybody else, we will have to take a price increase. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll get full recovery but we\u2019ll have to get partial because we need to fund the investment in marketing and the costs [of producing the gin] in Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll import brands will be going up. But we have momentum and momentum is everything here. Importers and the distribution system will reduce the number of brands that they will carry, there\u2019s no question about that. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey will tighten up their range because there is a 15 per cent hit whenever they import something. So it won\u2019t be easy for new entrants. The fact that we\u2019re in the market already, there\u2019s a real opportunity for success.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mr Rigney said the Irish company has also secured listings for the gin with Disney Cruise Line, grocery chain Winn-Dixie and HMS Host, which operates airport venues.<\/p>\n

When asked last December how big Gunpowder Irish Gin could become, Mr Rigney said: \u201cI think we can get to half a million cases. We\u2019re about 270,000 now. We\u2019ve a long way to go. It\u2019s a big leap but I think we will get there. We might do it in the next three to four years. It\u2019s all about sales now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The maker of Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin plans to double down on its investment in the United States…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,356,10740,18,19,17,10743,10742,10741,1411],"class_list":{"0":"post-11092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-drumshanbo-gunpowder-irish-gin","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-leitrim","15":"tag-pat-rigney","16":"tag-the-shed-distillery","17":"tag-us-tariffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}