Teeling backs Cooley takeover as he prepares for Dundalk move in April

John Teeling

John Teeling has backed the $16 billion acquisition of Beam, the parent of his old business Cooley Distillery, by Japanese drinks giant Suntory Holdings.

Mr Teeling said the takeover would bring a “missionary zeal” and help Irish whiskey crack the difficult Japanese market.

“This can only be good for everybody,” Mr Teeling told The Irish Times.

“Suntory is a fabulous family-owned company who think long-term.

“They love Irish whiskey and they previously spoke to Cooley about buying us before Beam got in before them.”

Mr Teeling sold Cooley to Beam for around €74m in 2011.

He has since launched a new whiskey brand with his son Jack and will shortly open a distillery at the former Great Northern Brewery site on the Carrick Road in Dundalk.

The takeover of the Dundalk site from Diageo will happen on April 1^st and Teeling said he hoped to go into production there in the third quarter of this year.

Previously: Cooley Distillery under new ownership

Cooley Distillery under new ownership

Cooley Distillery is set to have new owners for the second time in just over two years with Suntory Holdings set to acquire their parent company Beam in a deal valued at $16 billion, including debt.

The deal will make the Japanese company the world’s third-largest maker of distilled drinks.

Beam bought the Cooley Distillery and brands such as Kilbeggan and Greenore from founder John Teeling in December 2011 for around €74m.

Cooley’s flagship Kilbeggan brand has since joined the ranks of Beam’s Rising Star brands, which the US company is promoting strongly in Asia.

Beam owns Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark bourbons, Courvoisier cognac and Sauza tequila with Suntory being behind Yamazaki, Hakushu, Hibiki and Kakubin Japanese whiskies, Bowmore Scotch whiskey and Midori liquer.

Beam is the third large acquisition in recent years for Suntory. It bought soft drinks brands Lucozade and Ribena for £1.35 billion from GlaxoSmithKline last year and acquired France’s Orangina Schweppes in 2009.

Suntory said Beam’s chief executive Matt Shattock and the Beam management team would continue to lead the business.

The deal will close in the second quarter of the year, subject to shareholder approval.

Virtual reality time in Louth County Museum

It’s virtual reality time in the local museum!

A new ‘virtual presenter’ created by Casio is now in situ at the Louth County Museum in Roden Place.

In what is being hailed as a European first, the virtual presenter, or avatar, will interact with visitors to the museum via a realistic-looking character that will speak via a screen.

The virtual presenter tool has been created by Casio Signage, a division of Casio – a company probably most famous for its calculators many of use used in secondary school.

It was installed in the museum yesterday and will relay information about four museum exhibits – Vere Foster, Napper Tandy, King William of Orange and Olympian Beatrice Hill-Lowe.

The project has been jointly initiated by the museum, Casio and Quick Response Ireland. According to the trio, the installation is the first of its kind in the country and the first such virtual presenter at a European museum.

It would appear that, internationally, only one other such virtual presenter is already in use – in Japan.

The screen in the Dundalk museum is shaped like the character, which visitors can select to match the characteristics needed to bring people into a given location. The character’s appearance and voice can be changed to keep repeat customers from losing interest, according to the museum.

The installation also offers multilingual support for visitors who speak various languages, and its light source lasts for circa 20,000 hours.

The full-size virtual presenter will be installed in the museum reception area in the coming weeks. It will introduce the visitor to the museum in general and will then guide them to the desktop virtual presenter.

James Maher of Quick Response Ireland explained how the company linked up with the County Museum.

He said Quick Response is focused on bringing history and heritage to life using web-based technology tools.

“We have been working with Brian Walsh [museum curator] over the past number of months integrating new technologies such as QR codes, augmented reality and mobile seamlessly into the County Museum environment in Dundalk.”

Brian Walsh said that both the desktop and full-sized virtual presenters can be updated as exhibitions in the museum change.

“We were trying to think of a name to suit our new member of the Museum team and have settled on Cassie-O, so now we just have to work on a name for her sister who arrives in the next few weeks,” he said.