The famous Bushmills distillery’s pre-tax profits went up over 8% to £11.1m last year, as it launched a new distillery in its Co Antrim base.
The Old Bushmills Distillery Company Ltd’s accounts for 2023 show an increase in profit before tax despite an essentially stable level of turnover between the two years.
The famous brand, which is owned by global luxury drinks company Becle Group, employed an average of 126 people per month last year.
It is headquartered at 2 Distillery Road, in the Co Antrim town that gave the whiskey its name, and from which it still manufactures its products.
Last year saw the company open the new “Causeway Distillery” next to the famous old distillery.
The strategic report that precedes the accounts describes the company’s activities as “distilling maturation, blending, packaging and distribution of Irish 2hiskey throughout the world to fellow group undertakings and third parties”.
The company had a turnover of £56m in 2023, almost identical to last year’s figure. Bushmills’ cost of sales was also very stable, at £45m, up slightly from £44m in 2022, as was the £2.4m spent on administrative expenses.
Employee costs were recorded as £7.7m for 2023, a small rise from the £7.1m in 2022, while directors remuneration feel to £180,000 from £234,000.
Well all totalled up, Bushmills made a profit of £11.1m before tax, an 8.8% rise from 2022’s figure of £10.3m.
The company’s cash at bank and in hand went up by 50% to £4.3m, from 2.9m the prior year.
However the money it owes to creditors due within 12 months increased by 53% to £51m from the £33.35m owed in 2022.
Bushmills received a loan worth £24.5m from JC Master Distribution Limited “for the purposes of capital expenditure”. This is the same amount as the accounts list as being owed to other group undertakings.
Group loans for Bushmills have an interest rate of 5.35% and are unsecured, although they are repayable on demand.
The reports attached to the accounts do not foresee any liquidity risk, as the company is a “strong cash generative business.”
The accounts do not disclose where the sales were made around the world, as “this information would be seriously prejudicial to the interests of the company.”
Irish whiskey is an increasingly large global industry, and a key export across the island. Numerous distilleries and brands have launched in Northern Ireland in recent years to capitalise on the worldwide interest in the product.
Bushmills’ acquisition by Becle in 2015 was a sign of this growing market for Irish whiskey. Becle is a major multinational company that owns numerous famous brands of spirits and liquors. It claims to be the world’s largest exporter of Tequila, and is headquartered in Mexico.
In 2022, tequila account for most of the sales of Becle, at 68%. In that year, Bushmills accounted for around 4% of the sales of the group.