One of the brothers behind Teeling Whiskey, Jack Teeling, explains why he decided to leave the world of finance and get involved in the family business.
Jack Teeling has revealed why he decided to leave the world of finance behind and get involved in the whiskey business.
Teeling, along with his brother Stephen, is behind the massive whiskey brand that bears his family’s name, with the company’s headquarters in Dublin’s Liberties one of the city’s prime tourist destinations since it opened in 2015.
Speaking to host Tadhg Enright on The Architects of Business, in partnership with EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™, Jack explained how he was initially reluctant to work with his father John at the Cooley Distillery.
However, he was soon bit by the buzz of the industry and when that business was sold to Beam Inc. in 2011, Jack and Stephen decided to launch a new distillery on Newmarket Square – close to where their ancestor Walter Teeling first distilled whiskey on Marrowbone Lane.
“I was interested in finance as my first working involvement,” explains Jack, “which I got from (my dad’s) listed companies, and being exposed to that.”
Jack – winner in the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Emerging category in 2017 – would work in Dublin, and then Australia, in finance before returning home and entering the family business.
Listen to the full show here…
On his decision to set up Teeling Whiskey, Jack says his years of experience working at the Cooley Distillery meant there was only one way he wanted his career to go.
“I felt I had the best insight (in terms of starting Teeling Whiskey) because I was the one at the coalface, seeing what was working, what wasn’t working, that I could apply that to the new venture and I have good strong relationships in the category, i.e. the supply of whiskey.
“I knew where more whiskey was if I needed to buy it and, as I said, I was emotionally involved. I’d still a lot of work I wanted to do, I still had a lot of things to prove to myself and I suppose there was demand for a good, strong independent Irish whiskey.”
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