20 minutes with John O’Connell, West Cork Distillers

How was West Cork Distillers set up?

Myself and two childhood friends, Denis and Ger McCarthy, set up the business in 2003. We would have grown up within 150m of each other down in Union Hall in west Cork. I studied chemistry in college only to realise that there were no jobs near home and with Denis and Ger’s fishing industry coming under pressure, the three of us came together and started up a distilling business. There has always been a tradition of artisan food and beverage production down here in west Cork, so the idea kind of stemmed from that. We started off just producing whiskey, which is still our flagship product. But maturing whiskey takes time, meaning that revenue didn’t come in straight away. So we also decided to start producing vodka, poitín and gin.

How much has the business grown since day one?

At first we worked out of a very small workshop in Union Hall. In November 2013, we moved operations to an old Heineken plant in Skibbereen. Since then, we expanded into new markets and with business really growing, we opened up a second distillery two years ago. Between the two plants, production runs 24/7. At the minute we are building a third new distillery that will effectively double our capacity for production.

Where do you source your grain and what happens to the byproducts?

The malting barley we use is 100% Irish. We buy mostly from Dairygold and the Malting Company of Ireland. Last year we would have used just over 7,000t of grain. There are two main byproducts – pot ale and distiller’s grain. We actually have an agreement with farmers in that we will provide them the distiller’s grain as long as they take the pot ale as well.

What are the challenges with running a business in west Cork?

While we are a bit cut off from Dublin, and even Cork city, growing the business here means we are creating local jobs. We try to do everything in-house. We employ our own process engineers, microbiologists and software coders. I’d say we’re the only distilling company in Ireland that does everything in-house. There are 74 people employed directly in West Cork Distillers and many more are employed indirectly, which is very important to us.

What are the main markets that you sell into?

The Irish market is still our most important sales market as it is the only market we have some sort of control over. After that, we sell into the US, Russia, France and Germany. There is a large exposure for Irish whiskey in the US in recent years which has been phenomenal. We’ve obviously benefited from this. While whiskey prices are high at the minute, I do think growth will continue because whiskey is a premium product with a lot of brand loyalty. We’re always trying to make inroads into new markets, with South America, Africa and Asia targets for the future.

Profile

Name: John O’Connell.

Company: West Cork Distillers.

Raw material: 7,000 of Irish grain per annum.

Export markets: US, Russia, France and Germany.