Cooley Distillery profits should double to £400,000 this year (€507,895), the whiskey manufacturer's chairman, Mr John Teeling, said yesterday. However, he warned that it will be several years before shareholders get a dividend.

Mr Teeling said the company had now paid off all business expansion scheme (BES) investors and had borrowings of £7 million. He said all spare cash is ploughed into distillation and marketing.

Speaking after the company's annual general meeting yesterday, Mr Teeling said the company was doing particularly well in France and that Cooley "has started to see good signs in the US on the back of growing sales of Irish whiskey".

He said the company is now distilling at full capacity at its malt whiskey distillery plant in Cooley, but its grain whiskey distillery plant is working at 40 per cent capacity.

Mr Teeling said yesterday that the company had introduced the first ever 100 per cent pure Irish grain whiskey. Called Greenore, it will be sold in Britain and in selected markets.