The Margin was intrigued to learn that Irish Distillers is objecting to the Guinness-Grand Met merger. IDG has remained coy about its exact reasons for objecting to the merger, but word in the booze industry is that French-owned Irish Distillers is a bit concerned about the competition impact on the whiskey market in continental Europe.

Could this possibly be the same Irish Distillers that tried to take over John Teeling's Cooley Distillery a few years back, with the sole aim of closing down a minnow of a competitor in the Irish whiskey business? At the time, the Margin well remembers being told by IDG suits in somewhat disparaging tones about how Cooley's products would tarnish the image of Irish whiskey abroad, an image that IDG had lavished lots of money on building up.

Not surprisingly, the boys in the Competition Authority blocked that takeover bid. The end result? Irish Distillers has done rather well since the Cooley bid was aborted and Cooley itself has steadily built up a niche market for its stable of branded whiskey.