The directors of Cooley Distillery are considering the possibility of an early flotation of the company on either the London or US stock markets. Speaking to shareholders at its annual general meeting in Dublin yesterday, Cooley chairman, Dr John Teeling, said that, while he believes the company cannot go public before next year, some of the other directors were keen to seek a listing either on the AIM market in London or on New York's Nasdaq market. "I believe we would need to be making a reasonable level of profit before we can go public. But we are looking at AIM on the basis that the UK institutions understand our product and we are also considering Nasdaq," Dr Teeling said. Meanwhile Cooley has announced that 95 per cent of shareholders in Kilbeggan whiskey have accepted its £1 million share offer for their shares. Cooley's offer is now unconditional and the company would buy up the remaining 5 per cent of the shares over the coming months, Dr Teeling said. The takeover is being funded by bank borrowings.
Dr Teeling warned the group would also have to take on further debt next year, possibly borrowing another £1.5 million to buy-out the next tranche of Business Expansion Scheme (BES) shareholders whose investments are due to mature in 1998.
Dr Teeling stated, however, that, while the company would continue to be "strapped for cash", further borrowings would not represent any threat to its financial well-being.
At the moment he acknowledged Cooley shareholders were not making a "fair return" on their initial investment. "It's taken a long time to get here and there's still a long way to go," he said. "But it couldn't have been any quicker as we didn't begin to sell whiskey until 1994. The business has now reached a plateau though where it is now profitable."
Cooley expected to make a six-figure profit this year, he said, but it would also have to spend substantial resources on marketing its products to boost sales. "The overall whiskey market is sluggish but the Irish whiskey brands are growing all of the time. Our brands are increasingly gaining greater recognition and we are making good headway in the own-brand end of the business," according to Dr Teeling.
Cooley now supplied branded Irish whiskey to eight out of Britain's top 10 retail multiples, including Tesco and Marks & Spencer. It was also focusing on winning a greater share of the French market, which was one of the biggest markets for whiskey in the world, Dr Teeling said.
