The Big Interview

Jack Teeling: ‘When I was growing up, Irish whiskey was not seen as a cool thing’

With business recovering well after the Covid dip, the managing director of Teeling Whiskey is optimistic about an industry that has ‘totally changed’

Jack Teeling, managing director of Teeling Whiskey: ‘I had a vision of doing something different, having a premium Irish whiskey with craft credentials that would bring the breadth of choice I felt consumers were looking for.’ Picture: Fergal Phillips

When Jack Teeling started out his career in the whiskey industry in 2002, he didn’t think it was up to much. As far as he could see the family business was in a dying sector, quite literally.

“When I was growing up, Irish whiskey was not seen as a cool thing. The industry was such a mature, dead market. Consumers were dying,” the 45-year-old says.

Twenty years on, Teeling has spent almost his entire career ...