ILLINOIS-BASED spirits group Beam Inc, which acquired Cooley Distillery earlier this year for $95 million (€72 million), has appointed Stephen Teeling as global marketing director of Irish whiskey.

“He’s an outstanding individual,” Beam’s president and chief executive Matt Shattock said in Dublin yesterday.

Mr Teeling is a son of John Teeling, the former chairman and co-founder of Cooley.

“His job will be to manage those brands and help figure out the strategies in our various markets.”

The Englishman confirmed Cooley’s managing director Jack Teeling, a brother of Stephen, has left the business as has John Teeling.

“John remains a trusted adviser for us,” Mr Shattock explained.

Mr Shattock spent 48 hours in Ireland this week, visiting Cooley’s two distilleries and meeting staff for the first time.

Mr Shattock said Kilbeggan whiskey would become a “priority” brand in its stable, which is best known for its bourbon products, notably Jim Beam.

He said Beam has taken over direct control of distribution of the Cooley brands in the US. “We’re wrapping up our plans for St Patrick’s Day.

“We’ll have the product out and more visible. That’s pretty exciting.”

He said Beam would focus on growing the Cooley brands in the major markets for Irish whiskey – the US, Germany, France and the UK.

Mr Shattock said Cooley had a “very, very good set of assets . . . [and] a solid amount of inventory”.

Beam’s investment in Cooley would be “significant”, he said, without putting a figure on this.

Beam is hoping to cash in on the surge in Irish whiskey sales of recent years, particularly in the US, where growth in the category was 17.5 per cent last year.

“Our aim in any market is to outperform so that’s what we would hope to do [in the US].”