William Grant & Sons, owner of Tullamore Irish Whiskey brand, has been granted planning permission by Offaly County Council for building the new pot still whiskey and malt whiskey distillery at Ballard and Clonminch in Tullamore, Ireland.

The €35m distillery will be developed on a 69 acre site and will include a pot and malt distillery building, warehousing, offices, employee car park and visitor facilities.

With construction scheduled to begin in April 2013, the distillery plans to incorporate latest green technology and tap in natural spring water from nearby Slieve Bloom Mountains for the triple distillation process.

The new distillery will help the company meet the growing demands for Tullamore Dew whiskey, whose worldwide sales are growing at a rate of 15% per year.

The distillery is expected to be completed by summer 2014 and provide around 100 construction jobs during the building phase.

Tullamore global brand director Shane Hoyne said they are happy to receive the planning permission for the distillery and will start the construction soon.

"This new distillery is a significant step in the journey of Tullamore D.E.W., which is now the second largest selling Irish whiskey worldwide. It is also an important development for the town of Tullamore and part of our continuing investment in the region following the redevelopment of our Visitor Centre in 2012," he added.

"We look forward to building a state-of-the-art distillery, and we are very proud to be bringing whiskey distilling back to Tullamore D.E.W.’s roots for the first time in almost 60 years."