The Teeling family in the CASE STUDY whiskey industry Jack Teeling was sitting in a labour ward Teeling Whiskey Company: a tradition of awaiting the birth of his daughter when he received an e-mail informing him that family entrepreneurship and whiskey the sale of the whiskey company he managed was to proceed. In Jack’s mind, distilling two momentous occasions had occurred: first, the birth of his daughter and second, his decision to leave the newly acquired distillery and establish his own Colm O’Gorman, Martina Brophy and Eric Clinton whiskey business. Jack Teeling was Managing Director of Cooley Distillery when the sale was negotiated. The board of Cooley agreed The authors are with the DCU Business School, Dublin City University, to the sale of the distillery to Beam Inc, a Dublin 9, Ireland. Colm O’Gorman is Professor of Entrepreneurship, Martina multinational business (now Beam Brophy is a Research Assistant and Eric Clinton (corresponding author) is Suntory) for $95 million (€71 million). Director of the Centre for Family Business and Lecturer in Entrepreneurship. Despite having 350 shareholders, Cooley E-mail: [email protected]. was considered a family affair as almost half of the company’s shares were owned by the Teeling family. Jack’s father, John Teeling, founded Cooley in 1987 and The Case Study section of the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and developed it over the following 25 years. Jack and his younger brother, Stephen, Innovation serves two purposes. First, the case studies presented are con- worked at Cooley for ten and seven years cerned with problematical issues that are pertinent to students of respectively and rose to senior manage- entrepreneurship. Thus they constitute appropriate teaching and learning ment positions: Jack to Managing vehicles on a variety of postgraduate and undergraduate programmes. Each Director and Stephen to Global Retail case study is accompanied by a set of guidelines for the use of tutors. Second, Manager. Both brothers acquired shares it is envisaged that those engaged in entrepreneurial activities will find the in the company. For the Teelings, the sale cases both interesting and useful. was more than the loss of company control – it was the loss of a legacy. Abstract: This case study explores the origins of a new high-growth family Many past offers for Cooley had been start-up competing in a traditional industry. Teeling Whiskey Company Ltd rejected, so Jack was shocked to realize (TWC) is the brainchild of entrepreneur Jack Teeling. This new venture that, this time, the deal had materialized. stems from another high-profile, family-based business named Cooley Following a decade at Cooley, Jack possessed a good understanding of Distillery. Jack was Managing Director of Cooley Distillery, the business whiskey distilling processes, but his his father founded in 1987. At Cooley Distillery, he acquired a wealth of strength lay in whiskey sales and professional experience in whiskey distilling and selling. When the distillery marketing. In Jack’s view, establishing was sold to a large US spirits company in 2012, Jack pursued his own his own whiskey company was the next entrepreneurial venture in Irish whiskey. A year after the business was logical step: founded, Jack was joined by his brother Stephen Teeling, and together they have shaped their idea for a boutique, premium whiskey distiller producing ‘I could have gone off and got a innovative offerings into a fast growing, internationalized business. Jack franchise or could have got involved and Stephen need to build a niche for TWC, as many new distilleries are in property, investing or financial due to enter the market. services but I felt I had a specific insight into Irish whiskey therefore, it Keywords: entrepreneurship; prior knowledge; prior experience; start-up; would be foolish of me not to utilize family business that knowledge and those connections and relationships and see if I could Key learning outcomes: perceiving opportunities; pre-incubated start-ups; actually carry on what we had started examining the ‘nature versus nurture’ debate in Cooley.’ Jack was aware that whiskey distilling was risky. The payback period is lengthy, as attested by Cooley Distillery, which ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION Vol 16, No 3, 2015, pp 217–225 doi: 10.5367/ijei.2015.0195 217 Case study – Teeling Whiskey Company took 11 years to make its first profit and Jack implemented a revised corporate 15 years before cumulative profits strategy for Cooley that focused on exceeded cumulative losses. However, launching super and ultra-premium Jack believed Irish whiskey presented a products, targeting four key brands in potentially rewarding opportunity, and established European and US whiskey this drove his passion for re-entering the markets, and expanding the marketing whiskey industry: team. While developing Cooley’s strategy, Jack gained vast insight into ‘I wanted to get right back in there consumer trends within the whiskey and fill that hole in the market that industry: was being created, be it with a range of products that international ‘What I noticed in Cooley was that distributors would have or spark the Figure 1. Jack Teeling. the world changed quite dramatically Photo by Conor McCabe Photography. consumers’ interest in different things for Irish whiskey from the 1990s up from Irish whiskey. I think we’ve to 2005/2006. Millennial consumers managed to take advantage of that were coming into the category. It was Jack’s early life, his Cooley Distillery quite successfully over the last two to really hard for Cooley to adapt career, the establishment of TWC and three years.’ because it had been set up in a certain TWC’s initial growth. way. It had scar tissue from the tough Teeling Whiskey Company (TWC) is an years in the 1990s. There was a big internationalized start-up with the Jack Teeling, the entrepreneur selling job for someone like me to go ambition to reinvigorate the Irish in and drive a huge amount of change whiskey category. Jack’s vision is to As children, Jack (see Figure 1) and at the top level.’ grow the business from whiskey Stephen Teeling became accustomed to blending and bottling to distilling. Since the business world. Jack describes Stephen joined in 2013, the brothers have His brother, Stephen, was appointed to a himself as an independent person who led the company to rapid growth, with marketing role when he joined Cooley in never liked asking for help, even in international turnover increasing from 2006. Post-Cooley sale, Stephen stayed childhood. Their father, John Teeling, €143,500 to €1.8 million in a year. with Cooley and was promoted to Senior was an established entrepreneur with In 2012, as TWC was formed, the Irish Global Marketing Manager for Irish stakes in multiple natural resource whiskey category experienced a major Whiskey. Jack was given the opportunity companies. John Teeling, once a lecturer revival. The sector is expected to invest to stay at Cooley, but he declined the in business at a leading Irish university, €1 billion in Ireland over the next decade offer. As Managing Director, Jack was founded Cooley Distillery in 1987 when as Irish whiskey exports are set to double afforded a high degree of autonomy, Jack and Stephen were aged eleven and to 12 million cases by 2020. In the face which he believed would not be main- six. of emerging competition, Jack has shown tained under the management of a Business appealed to Jack, and in a steely resolve and unwavering ambition multinational company. Jack had mixed 1994, he attained a Bachelor of Com- in his attempt to offer a fresh take on feelings about his departure from merce degree at University College Irish whiskey: Cooley: Dublin. Following this, he completed a Master’s degree in finance. Jack worked ‘We don’t want to just produce an ‘It was a family company but it as a private bank equity dealer for three Irish whiskey. We want to produce the wasn’t my vision. It always had to be years before joining his father’s whiskey most interesting, different Irish respectful to the people that were business in 2002. He began his Cooley whiskey so that when people want to there before. For me there was a bit of career in a commercial role before get away from the mass market they mourning when Cooley was sold but moving to Sales and Marketing Director can discover us and we can take them it did provide a blank canvas for what in 2007. Jack also completed a part-time on a journey of trying different I thought was required for a new Master’s degree in international market- things.’ premium Irish whiskey.’ ing so he could give the company added value. On his progression in Cooley, Jack This is the story of entrepreneur Jack He oversaw the integration process of remarks: Teeling and the origins of his whiskey Cooley into Beam before pursuing his start-up, TWC. The aim of this case is to own entrepreneurial venture. Jack challenge the preconceived notion of ‘I became managing director in 2010 believes his inherent risk-taking ability entrepreneurs as solo entities, and instead and started big change, managing stems from exposure to his professional to consider entrepreneurs as ‘organiza- programmes, trying to evolve the environments. Yet he is a proponent of tional products’ drawing on existing organization to allow us to take both ‘nature and nurture’ in explaining organizational experiences and resources advantage of the opportunities. We entrepreneurial tendency. In April 2012, for entrepreneurial opportunities were really beginning to see the three months after the sale of Cooley, (Freeman, 1986). The case explores benefits of what we were doing.’ Jack established TWC (see Figure 2).