Shannon's Irish Coffee toasts success in convenience

Niche Drinks, the Northern Irish cream liqueur producer, saw sales of its unique and highly innovative Shannon's microwaveable Irish Coffee grow by more than 50 per cent last year.

Growth of the convenient Irish coffee, developed by the Derry-based company, is being driven by sales outside Northern Ireland and particularly in Great Britain with key Scandinavian markets such as Norway and Sweden targeted for further development

The impressive growth has been assisted by a £110,000 investment undertaken by the company in new production plant and equipment to expand capacity in response to market demand.

Shannon's Irish Coffee, developed initially for Marks and Spencer in the UK, is made with aged Irish whiskey and double cream, and contains 11 per cent alcohol by volume. It is presented in a stemmed drinking glass with a handle, sealed with a foil lid, with the layers of coffee and locally sourced cream 'set' until it is heated in a microwave oven for 45 seconds.

Ciaran Mulgrew, managing director of Niche Drinks, winner of a Queen's Award for Exports, attributes the success of Shannon's Irish Coffee to the developing trends towards premium products which can be made easily and enjoyed at home.

"Shannon's is all about giving consumers a little bit of luxury at home, a self indulgent treat or a fantastic gift for friends. Everywhere we go to taste the product, consumers love it and want to know where they can get it, the key thing is getting trial, after that the product sells really well."

Niche Drinks, which announced plans to build a new £10 million whiskey distillery in Derry last month, sells all of its production outside Northern Ireland and includes major retailers such as Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Aldi and Morrison's among its high profile customers. Niche Drinks also uses around 25 per cent of the fresh cream produced in the North West of Ireland in the production of its Irish Cream Liqueurs.

In addition to own label role and its own innovations such as the Shannon's Irish Coffee brand, Niche Drinks produces Saint Brendan's Irish Cream Liqueur under license from brand owner Luxco from St Louis, Missouri.

The projected investment in the new whiskey distillery, currently at the planning stage, also includes new production facilities to support an expansion in cream liqueur processing. Derry was once a global Irish whiskey distilling and was home to the biggest Irish whiskey distillery in Ireland.