Diversifying for the future of the family farm at Ballykeefe Distillery

The Hereford herd at Ballykeefe Distillery may well be the envy of many beef cattle in Ireland; not to mention a few human beings. After all, it’s not every farm animal that gets pot ale as part of their diet.

“As you can see, they come running,” smiles farmer and distiller Morgan Ging as he turns the tap; though we should probably point out that while the pot ale has the flavour profile of whiskey, it comes without the alcohol content. And it’s the Herefords who are the first to greet visitors when they pull into the farmyard just outside Cuffsgrange, Co Kilkenny; just one of the things that Morgan believes makes his family’s distillery so unique.

“That’s very important to us to say, ‘Yes, this is real, this is a family farm,’” he says. “It’s not just something on a label.”

Indeed, it was the drive to secure the family beef and tillage farm for the next generation that prompted the diversification to a distillery, with their first whiskey using 100% of their home-grown barley due for release in August 2020, and an award-winning range of gin, vodka and poitín brought to market in the meantime, as well as tours.

Distilling a dream

Originally from Co Laois, Morgan explains how he first had the idea for a distillery over 25 years ago while farming with his father, as a means to adding value to their malting barley.

Unable to secure a licence to distil at the time, the idea was shelved. However, in 2002 Morgan (who also trained in mechanical engineering) and his wife Anne (a physiotherapist) bought the 40-acre farm at Ballykeefe and set about establishing their own enterprise while raising their four children: Sarah, now 20, Maebh, 18, Kevin, 16 and Aidan, 10.

Today, the Ging family farm 160 acres between their own and rented land, where they finish about 200 head of cattle every year, and grow barley, maize and beet. About five years ago, however, the idea of the distillery emerged again after Morgan identified the need to diversify.

“I didn’t want to lose the farm for the next generation because farming is so high investment and low profitability,” says Morgan, who explains how he was going into the accountant “with the end of year accounts, hoping to break even”.

“It’s no way to run a business; hoping you’ll break even. And that was the case for a number of years at this stage,” he continues. “We had the horsemeat crisis, we had the bull beef crisis, we had all the different crises; and it always comes back to the farmer who takes the hit.”

Different options were initially explored. “Dairying was the buzz word at the time,” recalls Morgan; but he knew he did not want to follow that trend.

“And my accountant said to me, ‘Well, what are you interested in?’ And I said, ‘Well I want to add value to the farm’ and I said I’d love to distil. And she actually encouraged me to have a look at it, and the running joke here at the moment was that it was a small little still in this room we are in is what I told my wife I was going to do; and we end up with a multi-million distillery out there now.”

Long-term investment

Having received the licence this time round, planning permission was secured in 2015, building commenced in 2016 and the first spirit was commissioned in 2017, using copper stills custom-built by Barrison Engineering in Italy: with approximately €6m pumped into the project to date.

And Morgan makes it clear that this is a “very long-term investment”.

“It takes a long time to get money to come in,” he says. “You have to build a brand – brand is as big in business as building the distillery.

“We also have to lay down the stock for three years, so we won’t have whiskey available for three years, so August 2020 is when our first spirit will be released.”

The Gings grow 60 acres of malting barley (Laurate and Olympus), and have also experimented with their own rye, and this 100% “farm-to-bottle” whiskey model is sacrosanct to Morgan.

“So the consumer can rest assured when they pick up a bottle of Ballykeef ePoitín or Whiskey in a year’s time, that yes, that is definitely Irish grain in that,” says Morgan.

“And that’s what Irish farmers need to hear: that their grain is actually in Irish whiskey and for them to be able to market their grain, which in turn will give them a better price for their grain, because growing barley in this country is not profitable at the moment.”

Equally important is the fact that the byproducts from the distillery go back to the farm; as well as the pot ale, the cattle are fed the distillers’ grain, which has provided another form of diversification – Ballykeefe Whiskey Steaks, which have been trialled in local restaurants.

While they wait for their first bottle of whiskey, they have also developed seven other products: their poitín (basically unaged whiskey, but with the same flavour profile) and a range of gins and vodkas based on a neutral potato-based spirit sourced from Europe for a smooth finish, which have picked up a plethora of awards including a gold medal at the 2019 World Gin Awards, best Irish vodka at the 2018 Irish Whiskey Awards and “master class” for their poitín at the 2018 Global Spirits Masters.

Distillery tours are also an important part of the business, with regulars including everybody from dairy and tillage groups to whiskey societies, as well as locals and tourists attracted by the five-star reviews on Tripadvisor.

Distribution-wise, Ballykeefe products are now stocked exclusively at SuperValu nationwide, while they are also available in numerous leading hotels and bars. International expansion is also on the cards: by this time next year, Morgan expects to be in 14 different countries.

However, he is fully aware of the challenges ahead to compete with the big players.

“It’s one thing to build a distillery, but unless the person walking down the street in London or Munich or New York knows Ballykeefe exists, then you’re going nowhere fast,” he says.

“You have to pump a lot of money into a brand, build it, get it out there and that’s what it takes, so we have full-time staff doing that.”

Sustaining a future

What Morgan believes sets Ballykeefe apart, however, is the traceability of its whiskey and their commitment to sustainability, whether it’s feeding the byproducts to the livestock or the energy efficient design of the distillery itself; measures which saw them win the environmental award at the 2018 Kilkenny Chamber Business Awards and bronze at the 2018 Irish Food and Drink Business Awards. The company has also shown commitment to the local community, sponsoring the local hurling and camogie clubs, as well as supporting the Ballykeeffe Amphitheatre.

However, for Morgan, having a sustainable farm is also about having something to pass on to the next generation where they can make a viable living, with greater support from the Government so that the farmer is “not the price taker, he’s the price maker”.

“And that’s the problem with farming in Ireland – we’re price takers – so if something happens in Russia or Canada or somewhere with grain, then the Irish farmer gets either less or a bit more for their product and currently the problem is we take less, no matter what happens. And that needs to change,” he says.

“If they want sustainable farming in Ireland, there’s a generation coming up now and they need to have a future in farming. They’re not going to work for nothing and the whole thing needs to change. We need to have a whole new look at how farming is sustainable going forward and it has to be price. Subsidies are fine; but a farmer needs to have some pride in the work he’s doing and he needs to be paid for what he does on price.”

Though the next generation of Gings are fully invested in the future of Ballykeefe, whether it’s helping out on the farm, in the distillery or on the tours.

“They’re seeing what it is to build a business and be part of it,” says Morgan, who hopes that if any of the children wish to join in the future, “there’s so many aspects to the business that there’s room for everyone in it. The goal is to pass it on,” he concludes.

For further information, visit www.ballykeefedistillery.ie

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