New partnerships build on Two Stacks’ growth ambitions in travel retail

Two Stacks (centre) prominently displayed as part of The QDF Factor zone at Qatar Duty Free

A series of new partnerships is extending the reach of Two Stacks Irish whiskey in travel retail – as owner Ireland Craft Beverages builds on strong early success in domestic markets worldwide.

The company’s signature line, Two Stacks Dram in a Can, has been rolled out with Qatar Duty Free following its short-listing in The QDF Factor – an initiative from Qatar Duty Free and The Moodie Davitt Report to encourage innovation and creativity in the channel in 2020 and 2021.

Crafting a bright future: Two Stacks owners (from left) Liam Brogan, Donal McLynn and Shane McCarthy

Co-Founder Shane McCarthy said: “This is an early and important step in our travel retail development. We believe it adds diversity to the retail offer. We are targeting growth in Middle East airports, a drive that is helped by our entry into the domestic market in India, with sub-continent travellers so important to duty free in the Middle East. We also aim to enter duty free at Indian international airports.”

Building the travel retail footprint: Another image of Two Stacks on display at Qatar Duty Free

As reported, boutique spirits distribution company Blue Caterpillar has struck a five-year agreement to distribute Two Stacks in Americas and Caribbean travel retail, alongside some domestic markets.

Two Stacks has followed up its Dram in a Can launch with bottled versions of the core range, as well as a new single malt. Through Blue Caterpillar, the bottled range has entered the US duty free market, including with Dufry.

In its home market, Ireland, ARI has listed the bottles in The Loop Duty Free at Dublin Airport.

“Duty free builds brand awareness and is a shop window but it also is becoming a top five market in sales terms,” said McCarthy. “We have committed to the industry and to attending the major shows next year. We will build in international markets from the Middle East to the Americas and go from there. We have had a lot of help from Martin Mullen, Garry Maxwell and others in the business who have helped us build distribution.

“For a brand that is under two years old it is a very good story. It sets an example for what can be achieved in the Irish whiskey category.”

Dram in a Can (left) is heading for one million units sold in 2022; the Two Stacks bottled range has grown in popularity, from the First Cut (centre) to the new single malt (right)

The line for which Two Stacks is best known, Dram in a Can, will sell over one million units across all channels in 2022, building on a remarkable, if still very young story in the category.

That story began around seven years ago, when three friends – Shane McCarthy, Donal McLynn and Liam Brogan – created Ireland Craft Beverages, a company that has since played the role of blender, bottler, exporter and distributor for independent Irish drinks brands around the world.

Deciding that they wanted to produce as well as distribute, in 2020 they created Two Stacks Whiskey. The name derives from the towering twin chimney stacks of the old distillery in Dundalk, further down the Irish east coast, which were so high that they once served as a navigation point for sailors plying routes up and down the Irish Sea.

The ‘Dram in a Can’ concept serves the brand’s 43% five-part blend in a 100ml can, with multi-packs also available.

McCarthy said: “Our early target when we started 18 months ago was 100,000 cans and it has exceeded expectations. We are getting container orders of 100,000 at a time from some big markets and about 300,000-plus from the US. We are now in around 30 export markets, having just launched in Australia with Dan Murphy’s plus new markets such as South Korea and Taiwan.

“We have also seen our bottle business go well now. That was the idea – get liquid to lips via the cans and then build the bottle business. It’s a real win-win for us. It builds trust in the brand and has built popularity on the basis of its quality.”

Innovation remains high on the agenda. The brand’s first single malt in a can has just launched in Sweden domestic and a cream liqueur launches in December.

Its own cask finishes play an important part in building its reputation. “We are creating some beautiful blends combining casks from all of the new distilleries emerging in Ireland. Being a bonder/blender we can do so much around this and are working with some exciting distilleries from north to south to create exciting new expressions under the Two Stacks label.

“We are also the first we believe to create a red ice wine finish for a whiskey. People love that element of experimentation. We have made it all about the grass roots and the whiskey drinkers.

“We create a lot of limited editions, six weeks of a cask finish created as a bespoke order – that is exciting for our partners. We have done some exclusive bottlings for bars that help build our reputation. We are not rigid in our approach; we can work with lots of people. We can offer quality and flexibility.”

As blender, bottler and distiller, the company can take a flexible approach to whisky making as it grows

This flexible approach and the appeal of limited editions in travel retail means that this is a direction the company can take as it grows in the channel.

McCarthy said: “We have had discussions about travel retail exclusives, and that can be part of the future as we grow.

“We want to be at the forefront of pushing the Irish whiskey category in duty free. We love our whisky, we love making it, we love drinking it. So that is our starting point: passion and purpose.”

Sustainability as ‘second nature’

Two Stacks’ offices in Northern Ireland (below) were built from four up-cycled containers and run off a low-energy heating system directed into solar panels. That goes some way to explaining why Co-Founder Shane McCarthy says that sustainability comes as “second nature”.

He adds: “Our natural ethos is to keep energy costs in sync with the day to day running of both the distillery and bonded businesses. We don’t overplan, and our approach has left us in a safe position without taking too much out of the distilling and manufacturing process. We are carbon-negative in both areas of our business.”

Apart from the office build, thermal hot water is also directly heated via the solar system on the warehouse roof, while forklift and pallet trucks are all electric and run off charging points throughout the warehouse.

“We also have a fully electric car charging station outside the warehouse which is used each day to charge our electric cars (free fuel for staff), all directly coming from the solar UV panels,” said McCarthy.

“The bespoke canning line runs ten hours a day with Dram in a Can production on first-phase electricity, again directly connected to the solar.”

McCarthy adds that this approach has helped the company offset the worst of the energy crisis. For its 6,000sq ft of space, it pays around £100 a month on energy bills, with a full charge daily on all car batteries.

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