Staffords to develop €57m whiskey site
A FAMILY-owned Wexford company based in Drinagh, which has been involved in the bond storage of alcohol for many years, has been granted planning permission to develop a €57 million whiskey maturation facility in Waterford.
Stafford Bonded was given a 10-year planning permission with conditions by Waterford City and County Councils to build the facility at Waterford Airport Business Park.
Once fully developed, the Stafford Bonded whiskey site will include 38 whiskey maturation warehouses of varying sizes and a new onsite office, including conference rooms for clients and whiskey investors.
The first phase of the development to include eight warehouses is due to start immediately.
Michael Stafford Junior, the managing director of Stafford Bonded, said that as a family business, they take pride in building long-term sustainable relationships with valued clients and the aim is to add value to those clients by providing cost-effective quality solutions.
The Waterford site currently employs 15 staff and this is expected to grow to 40 over the next three years, with the likelihood of a further 30 staff within five years, bringing the total team in Waterford to 70 and almost 100, including Stafford’s Wexford site.
The Wexford site specialises in the bonded storage and logistics of cased alcohol products. The Waterford development will include bulk whiskey in-take, disgorging and blending facilities and racked warehouses for private client cask storage.
‘Stafford Bonded’s post-distillery solution allows distilleries to focus on their core business, distilling,’ said Mr Stafford. ‘By outsourcing the maturation, bottling and cased good storage to industry specialists, distilleries need less capital for building warehousing and investing in IT, staff and customs and excise administration.
‘By outsourcing, they receive added value through economies of scale and expertise in a specialist area, the value of which is often underestimated by new market entrants, as well as avoiding the significant cap-ex.
Stafford Bonded counts several well-known whiskey brands among its clients, including Waterford Distillery, Dublin Liberties Distillery and West Cork Distillery.
The company currently has eight million litres of pure alcohol of maturing spirit under its management. To date, Stafford Bonded has built and filled six whiskey warehouse units to service Waterford Distillery and a further four whiskey warehouses to services its other clients.