Serie 4 - Maltings

The whiskey production involved its own malting facilities within the distillery. D. E. Williams Ltd. started supplying malt in the 1950s. Together with F. A. Waller & Co. Ltd. the malting plants in Banagher were build. The Midlands Malting Co. Ltd. was incorporated in 1968. The Williams Group held 51% of the shares.
The barley was purchased via Williams-Waller Ltd. - seed fertiliser and grain merchants founded in 1975 in corporation with F. A. Waller. Suppliers were ca. 4000 local farmers.
The company supplied Guinness and additionally exported malt via Irish Malt Exports Ltd. (the Williams Group held 16% of their shares).
Greencore acquired the Williams Group in 1996 and hence the Midlands Malting Co. Ltd.. The closure of the Maltings was announced in 2005.

While working in Tullamore Distillery since 1864, D. E. Williams had also established his own grocery business in 1891 in Tullamore. This rapidly expanded to 26 bars, groceries and hardware stores all within a 30-mile radius of Tullamore. The branch houses, mostly licensed, were located in neighbouring towns, and the company expanded into an important wine and spirit business, general wholesale, tea and mineral waters. D. E. Williams Ltd. also had interests in malting and seed/corn dealing, which expanded in the 1950s as it became the supplier of malt to other distillers and brewers through the Midland Malting Co. Ltd. in 1968.

In 1961, D. E. Williams Ltd. expanded into the supermarket business and established the chain of Five-Star supermarkets, some on the sites of the original Williams branch shops. In 1966, the Williams Group Tullamore Ltd was incorporated and comprised the companies D. E Williams Ltd., B. Daly & Co. Ltd, Keily & Co. Ltd., and Irish Mist Liqueur Company.

In 1997 both companies were sold to Greencore plc.

The Williams Group Tullamore Ltd. was formed as a holding company to control and co-ordinate the activities of the four existing companies, D. E. Williams Ltd., B. Daly and Co. Ltd., Keily & Co. Ltd., and the Irish Mist Liqueur Co. Ltd.