The company that bought Conor McGregor’s whiskey brand will stop using his “name and likeness”, in a move that comes after the High Court awarded almost €250,000 in damages to a woman who said he raped her.
Nikita Hand had alleged in her civil action for damages that she was raped by the mixed martial arts fighter in the Beacon Hotel on December 9th, 2018. Mr McGregor denied the claim.
McGregor sold his Proper No. Twelve whiskey brand to Mexican-owned Proximo Spirits in 2021, in a deal that was said at the time to have valued the business at some $130 million (€123.9 million).
The image of the mixed martial arts fighter remained visible on Proximo websites on Tuesday as major Irish retailers such as Tesco, SuperValu, Centra, Costcutter, Carry Out and the main wholesaler into the Spar network said they would no longer supply product linked to McGregor.
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But Proximo has now indicated he will no longer feature in company marketing.
“Since 2021, Proximo Spirits has been the 100 per cent owner of Proper No. Twelve Irish Whiskey,” the company said in response to questions.
“Going forward, we do not plan to use Mr McGregor’s name and likeness in the marketing of the brand.”
There was no immediate comment from McGregor’s representative.
This comes after retail outlets Tesco (Ireland and UK), SuperValu, Centra, Costcutter, Carry Out, Spar and Mace announced they are to cease selling alcohol products linked to mixed martial arts fighter.
Tesco confirmed it is “removing Proper No 12 (whiskey) from sale in its stores and online”.
The retailer said that it did not stock Forged Irish Stout which is owned by Mr McGregor.
Musgraves, which operates the SuperValu chain, said it “could confirm these products are no longer available to our store network”.
[ Court battle looms over who will pay legal costs in Conor McGregor caseOpens in new window ]
Centra stores, which also form part of the Musgraves network of stores, will also no longer sell products linked to Mr McGregor.
The Barry Group, one of Ireland’s leading retail food and alcohol wholesale providers which operates the Costcutter and Carry Out off-licence outlets told The Irish Times on Tuesday that it had “made the decision to remove Forged (Irish) Stout and Proper Twelve (whiskey) from circulation to our network”.
Meanwhile, it is understood that BWG Foods, one of the country’s leading retail and wholesale companies, has decided to delist products linked to Mr McGregor and will no longer be distributing them across its network of Spar, EUROSPAR, Mace, Londis and XL stores.
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On Monday, the developer of the ‘Hitman’ video game series said it was removing content featuring Conor McGregor.
IO Interactive said in a statement on social media: “In light of the recent court ruling regarding Conor McGregor, IO Interactive has made the decision to cease its collaboration with the athlete, effective immediately”.
“We take this matter very seriously and cannot ignore its implications. Consequently, we will begin removing all content featuring Mr McGregor from our storefronts starting today.”
A number of industry sources maintained that while Forged Irish Stout is on sale in some pubs, it is not widely available.
The Press Up Group, the country’s largest hospitality group, said it “never stocked any of Conor McGregor’s brands”.
One Dublin off-licence operator said on Monday that his store would not be selling McGregor products again.
Damien Martin of Martin’s off-licence in Marino in Dublin said his store did not generally stock such products but had previously secured a case on request for a customer. He said in the aftermath of the court case last week, his store had no interest doing so in the future.
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Supermarkets Lidl and Aldi also said they did not sell any products owned by Mr McGregor.
On Sunday, the Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) urged retailers to stop selling Mr McGregor’s stout and whiskey products in the aftermath of the jury’s decision in the High Court.
Clíona Saidléar, RCNI executive director, said companies making money from his alcohol and other products need to look at whether they want to align themselves with a man found by a civil jury to have sexually assaulted a woman.
Ms Saidléar said on Monday that she had not heard anything back from retailers on the issue.
Separately the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre said following the jury decision on Friday, calls to the national helpline had almost doubled over the weekend while the number of first-time callers have increased by 50 per cent.
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