Growth of Ireland’s Craft Beer Industry with Wim De Jongh
Speaker 2 (00:06)
So welcome to Amazing Food and Drink. I am absolutely delighted to have Vin De Jong, who is the owner of Hope Brewery in Dublin. Welcome along, Vin.
Speaker 1 (00:17)
Thank you very much, Colin. Delighted to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:19)
It’s great to have you on board. So tell us a bit about yourself and your background, Vin.
Speaker 1 (00:24)
Okay, well, we started our brewery five years ago, and I was already 51 or 52 at the time. So I have a whole career in a different sector before me. I grew up in the packaging industry. I worked for an Irish company called Clondalkin Group, and I had a wide range of roles. I travelled all over the world with them and finished off in 2010 with them when I was responsible for their mergers and acquisitions. Clondalkin was a big multinational printing and packaging company at the time. So when I finished up there, I was really looking to do something for myself, and I struggled to find what it was. As a Dutch guy, I grew up in Holland. I thought, well, maybe I should set up a bicycle distribution business. But I also grew up with beers and with Belgian beers and tasty beers. So when I went around a couple of other projects, which was mainly interim management for a printing company and for a building materials company. A very good friend of mine in Holland had just bought into a brewery in Holland, and he had sold his own business for a good a bit of money, and he said, listen, why don’t we set up a brewery in Dublin?
Speaker 1 (02:04)
And what I liked about that, it’s a product that I’m passionate about. It’s a product that I enjoy drinking, and obviously But it was also a very growing industry at the time. And I came from the packaging industry, which had been in decline for a long time. And for good reasons, people want to have less packaging on on their food and drink, but on everything, you want less packaging. So our business was struggling in some areas. Now, in other countries where the sustainability is not as high up on the agenda, we were doing quite well. And in Germany, we had a plant that made biodegradable plastics, so they were all doing well. But in general, our business was under pressure. So the thoughts of entering an industry with double-digit growth was very exciting. So we took the big step. Once you hit 50, you can cash in your pension fund. And that’s what I did. I cashed in my pension fund, and together with my friend in Holland, who already had a brewery in Holland, we set up Hope Bier. Now, I didn’t do it alone here. I have a very good friend here in Ireland as well who was looking for a new challenge.
Speaker 1 (03:28)
He joined us and my wife was part of the team. So the three of us are the founders of… The four of us are the founders of Hope beer. And we thought about it, but we didn’t really think about it that long. We jumped in the deep end very quickly and just went out and bought ourselves a beautiful brewery.
Speaker 2 (03:52)
Think or swim type stuff?
Speaker 1 (03:54)
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (03:57)
I’m going to ask you, are you bathing in that really, because I’m telling you now, you’re a very fresh face. That’s all I can tell you. If that’s what it does for you, you need to send me more.
Speaker 1 (04:10)
Yeah, well, listen, growing your hair and a beard in lockdown probably helps you with the youthful looks. Well, it’s worked wonders for you.
Speaker 2 (04:22)
I have to say, though, I’m really admiring what you’ve done, because that’s a really brave decision after working in one industry for the best part of your working career. And to come out into something completely different is it’s a big step, real big step.
Speaker 1 (04:37)
It was a big step. And in particular, I won’t tell you the salary I was on in Club Dawken Group, but it was- It was nice. Yeah, it was very nice. It was hard work, but it was very good. And certainly the first couple of years in starting your own business, you can imagine what your salary is, and it’s somewhere between zero and zero. But that was okay. We had a bit of fat built in to the system to get going. And really, I look at our success over the years in a couple of challenges. So one of the first successes we had was, I think we were two, two and a half years in when we managed to get a bank loan. Don’t underestimate. Start a business. They don’t mind taking your deposits and doing your wages and all that and paying all your bills. But getting a bank loan is a big deal, certainly in Ireland. So that was a big milestone in our business. And another big milestone was when we were able to pay ourselves a a bit of a salary, and then that got a little bit better. Still a long way off, but that doesn’t matter.
Speaker 2 (06:09)
Brilliant. Because I was going to ask you a question, and you’ve answered it. How did the brewery start? So it basically start it with your friend in Holland buying in, and then you thinking, Oh, that’s maybe not a bad idea for us.
Speaker 1 (06:21)
Yeah. So he is not a brewer either. I’m not a brewer. So we worked along the Ocean Eleven concept. So we hired specialists for everything, and we got a really good consultant to help us select the right brewery. I was very keen to buy local at the start, but at the end of the day, we went for a German-built brewery, and these guys produce state-of-the-art equipment. And even to date, anybody that comes into the brewery says, Listen, this is a great brewery. And that’s five years on. So our equipment was really, really good. And that’s what I meant as well by going in the deep end. We spent big. Whereas normally when brewery start, they might start with the small kids and get it second-hand and then build up and build up and build up to finally getting a nice new brewery when the business can afford it. So we just went ahead and did And did you buy over an existing brewery?
Speaker 2 (07:31)
Is that how it worked? No.
Speaker 1 (07:34)
So we bought brand new state-of-the-art equipment. Brilliant.
Speaker 2 (07:40)
Where are you based then?
Speaker 1 (07:44)
We are on the north side of Dublin in a town called Kilbarick, not far from the sea, from Holt. A lot of people know Holt. That’s where We have a lot of our customers in Malle Hyde.
Speaker 2 (08:03)
Very poised down there.
Speaker 1 (08:04)
Yeah, it’s a great spot. And it’s a good spot for bars and restaurants and off-licenses, which is where a lot of our business is.
Speaker 2 (08:14)
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Tell us some of the challenges that you faced when you started off and how you’ve overcome them as well.
Speaker 1 (08:25)
The first challenge was, how are we going to brew this beer? We needed to hire a brewer, so we were very lucky. Our first entry into the beer was we got our beers brewed by another brewery, and it was really just to test the marketing and to test a few of the recipes that we had put together together with another part of our Ocean Eleven team. And we brewed with this guy, and we just built up a lovely rapport. And when I said that we were looking for a brewer, and he knew what equipment we were about to buy, he was very keen to join us. So we got really one of the top brewers in Ireland to get started with. So that was a big challenge. A couple of challenges we probably got wrong. We wanted to be different. So we started off, our three first beers were a wheat beer, an IPA, a strong IPA. And what we called a blonde ale. A blonde ale is effectively like a pale ale. But we were quite different because most breweries started off with a red, a pale, and a stout. And we didn’t have those three beers.
Speaker 1 (09:42)
The other thing we did to be a little bit different was we decided to put our beer into 33 CL bottles, which are the small bottles. And that was probably a mistake because we were at the time, 80 % of the shelves in off-licenses were filled with half-litre bottles. Now, 75 % of the shelves are cans, and we had neither. So we just had these 33 CL bottles. And quite frankly, they did not sell. And that made our struggles to, not just to get into customers, but to get repeat sales more difficult. So now we have, you can see it on the background, now we have a canning line and we have cans. And certainly in the last two years, 90 % of our sales have been in cans. But that was a big challenge was to find the right packaging concept. And we got that wrong. In retrospect, now we’re happy with it because restaurants love 33 CL bottles. And we are only one of two breweries left in Ireland that package their beer in 33 CL bottles. So now we are the go to restaurants. Brilliant.
Speaker 2 (11:12)
So your mistake actually paid dividends in the end?
Speaker 1 (11:15)
In the end it did, but it made for a bit of a struggle at the start.
Speaker 2 (11:20)
Yeah. How long did it take you to realise that what you’d done was wrong?
Speaker 1 (11:26)
Of course, we didn’t want to admit to our mistake. No one ever does then. No one ever does. I’ve never done in my life. We never invested in 500 millilitre packaging equipment. We went straight to cans. And we first started off with a contract canning company who basically come in here, put our beers in cans, and then go out again. And since the start of this year, we have our own canning line. So we were able to invest. It’s just… And that’s worked out really well.
Speaker 2 (12:04)
Brilliant. And I must say, having had a couple of your cans in my hand, I absolutely love the packaging. I love the texture, I love the colours. I think it’s really innovative. It’s something I’ve never seen before.
Speaker 1 (12:16)
Yeah. We have a very good part of our Ocean Eleven team is a friend of ours who has a very successful packaging design company in Amsterdam. And He came over to Dublin and spent a week with us. He’s a guy we grew up with in school, and he works for big brands now. So he said, Listen, you need a story. Your product needs a story. You need a good brand, but also you need a logo. So if you look at the first two letters of our brand, that’s our logo. So the HO is our logo. And if you turn upside down, it either looks a little bit like an anchor or it looks like the female sign, whatever. It doesn’t matter what it looks like. You need to be able to wear your logo on your sleeve, was his concept. But also the story. Each of our beers has a little story attached to our locality. Local is probably the most important word in our business, as well as good beer, but local. So we are a local artisan producer of great beers with a lot of flavour. And for example, the beers that you see there, one is called Pass If You Can, and it tells the story of a highway man who lived in Rush, just north of us here.
Speaker 1 (13:49)
We have a couple of customers up there. And his patch was just near Blanchard Sound. And they named his patch after him, and they named it Pass If You Can. And what’s interesting is we were at a beer festival there three or four years ago, and this guy comes up to us and says, I live in Pass If You Can. So even though he is well gone, the little townland is still there called Pass If You Can. Brilliant. And the other story is about the dart. Just when the dart got going here, that’s the local transport Train. There was two guys who skived off school and went on a little journey for the afternoon. They’ve done it before, but this time when they got to Dunleary, which is where the dart stopped in ’85 or ’86, they got off the dart and said, Oh, listen, there’s a ferry. Let’s get on the ferry. They took the ferry to Holyhead, decided to carry on, took the train to London, at which days they said, Oh, God, We better go home. And they were 13 and 14 years old, very streetwise, North Dublin kids. So they took the train to the airport.
Speaker 1 (15:14)
And in those days, there wasn’t all the same security. They somehow got straight through security. My mum is right behind me and boom, they were gone and jumped on a plane, but ended up in New York. And this is a true Brilliant story. When they got to New York, Uncle Sam picked them up and sent them back to where they came from. But it’s a great story. I think they’re looking at making a movie out of it now, even. And we like that connexion with the locality. The dart line is right beside the brewery as well. So that gives us another taste for it. That’s why we called it Hop On. So hop on the dart and come and see us in the brewery.
Speaker 2 (15:59)
Absolutely. Absolutely brilliant. I love that.
Speaker 1 (16:01)
That’s not possible at the minute, but that’ll be back soon.
Speaker 2 (16:04)
It’ll be very soon. There are two brilliant stories. And have all of the cans got a story behind them?
Speaker 1 (16:12)
All of them have a little story. All of our core beers have a little story behind them. So we have five core beers. We have seasonal beer. We have a summer seasonal and a winter seasonal. And then we do limited edition beers. So as we We are celebrating our our fifth year in business, we are here. I’ll show you. We are doing a bit corny now, this. We’re doing a special beer, and we have our founders and brewers on the beer to celebrate five years in business. And that’s a strong IPA called overnight Oats. So there’s Oats in it and oak milk. So they’re a little bit different and a little bit special, the limited edition.
Speaker 2 (17:06)
Brilliant. If someone wanted to actually order beers, could you do that? Would you think if I wanted a speciality beer, depending on how many it was? I’m only asking them.
Speaker 1 (17:16)
Our minimum batch size is 2000 litres, so that’s a lot.
Speaker 2 (17:21)
It’s going to be a big party.
Speaker 1 (17:22)
Yeah. You can want a decent priority for that. That probably doesn’t work. But we’ve done beers for people where we’ve brewed them on our pilot kit, but that’s not really our business. It’s more about producing beers, and then we sell. We don’t sell them direct, so In Ireland, you need a licence to sell beer directly, and we don’t have that licence. So we sell all our beers through off licences. A lot of the local off licences do very well with our beer, but also O’Brien’s, which is a chain of off licences, carry out the chain of off licences across Ireland. We have a good few super values. We have done stores that carry our beer. So there is a Tesco soon. So that That’s how we distribute our retail product. And then we have bars and restaurants, The Entrade, which are, thank God, opening up again.
Speaker 2 (18:24)
Yeah, brilliant. So you actually started small and you’re starting to grow and grow and grow. That’s a brilliant story. Absolutely class. I was just trying to extend that a wee bit by bespoke beers, but that’ll be for another year. I’d like to ask you then, how did you develop your flavours? How did you come up with those ideas?
Speaker 1 (18:45)
Well, the first was one of our team of the Ocean Eleven. In Holland, my mate had a connexion with a guy called Derek Walsh, and he was a beer sommelier. I didn’t know they existed at the time, but they do. But he was a judge on a lot of the beer competitions. And he He’s a Canadian guy, but he lived right across the road from the brewery in Holland. So he helped. He came over here and again looked with us as to what beers would be good for the Irish market. See, Beers are very local. Ireland tend to look more to America for their beer flavours than they do to England, for example. In Holland, they look more towards Belgium for their beer flavours. And in Germany, I don’t know what they do.
Speaker 2 (19:50)
They make their own.
Speaker 1 (19:51)
Yeah, they make their own. So we helped us develop the first three recipes. And then after that, how we went about it is we would do a limited edition. And if the limited edition was very successful, and our first limited edition was a session IPA, we said, oh, this is a great beer. The next step was we made it our summer seasonal beer. And again, it did very well. And then after that, we decided, Okay, we’ll make it our hop on session IPA. So that’s how it developed. And it was basically the brewer who came up with the initial recipe, refined it a bit for the summer seasonal, and refined it again for the hop on. And that’s where we are now. And we’re continuously looking to improve the beer. But once a beer is established, it’s like a chocolate bar. You don’t want to change too much.
Speaker 2 (20:53)
Yeah, absolutely. People get used to it and they don’t like change.
Speaker 1 (20:57)
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (20:59)
Brilliant. And have you Have you seen an increase in the demand for craft beers over what we would call traditional brands?
Speaker 1 (21:07)
I think there is. The Craftbeer industry, when we started five years ago, was growing double Digit. It came from a very low base. I think the market share of craft beer at the time was one and a half or two %, and it grew to about 3% in the space of for two or three years. According to the stats, and they’re not very good, that has plateaued now. But there’s a couple of things that are happening. For example, Diageo brought out Hop House 13. And it alone… And we don’t like calling it a craft beer because it’s made by Diageo. But it is a beer that is trying to encrouch on the The market of craft beers. It has about three or four % market share by itself. Five Lamps is another craft beer that was acquired by CNC. So as soon as they were acquired by CNC, they’re not a craft beer anymore. Franciscan Well was one of the first craft beers in Ireland. They were acquired by Coors. So you can’t really call them a craft beer anymore. And then the last one was Franciscan Well. No, not Franciscan Well. 8 Degrees. They were acquired by Irish distillers.
Speaker 1 (22:41)
So again, they’re part of a large multinational company. And what we think defines a craft beer is that it’s an artisan producer, relatively small of locally produced craft beers. So you could argue that some of these guys, Francisca and Well, still make beautiful beers in a small brewery as well as in the big brewery. Same with 8 Degrees. They still brew their beers in a relatively small brewery. It just depends a little bit how you define it. Some of the stats, they’ve been excluded. That means that our three %, even though it’s static, is actually increasing because it’s just with less participants.
Speaker 2 (23:30)
Yeah, Got you. We’ll actually think that Franciscan Well is still out of zone because they’re one of our contributors as well.
Speaker 1 (23:36)
I know they are, and they make fantastic beers, and I love going to Franciscan Well. But some of their real Really popular beers are made in a bigger brewer. And that’s progress. That’s success.
Speaker 2 (23:53)
You’re getting popular once that happens, don’t you?
Speaker 1 (23:55)
Yeah, exactly. As you’re saying, you’re changing Ken was a great help in our business at the start. He helped me find our first brewer, and he is like the godfather of Irish Craft beer and a wonderful help to us at the start. So I have nothing negative to say about small craft beer breweries being bought by a larger entity. It’s just It’s different.
Speaker 2 (24:30)
Yeah. I was just going to say there, just thinking, in terms of help, that was good. You got help from them. Any others help you? Did you get any financial help or any help from Fáilte Ireland or any board be anybody?
Speaker 1 (24:45)
Who’ve been very good to us is the local enterprise office here on North County, Dublin. It’s called Fingal. Fingal Local enterprise Office. And they have been lifesavers to us. First of all, I went to all these courses to see how to set up your own business. At that time, I was still looking at a bike distribution business. But then I moved in with them and they helped with a feasibility study grant. They helped with first employment grants. They helped with expansion grants. And even up to last year, our canning line, they helped us with the purchase So they’ve been fantastic. Port Bea also, we are members of Origin Green, which is Port Bea’s Certified Sustainability Programme. They’ve been great help with information, but also with marketing support. And at the moment, even, they’re doing an eight-week, I think it’s podcast on the craft beer industry in Ireland. But they also have offices all around Europe, and I think even around the world. So for the first time now, we have engaged with a board be it’s called a brand ambassador who will be based in France for us for 18 months to help promote our brand on a part-time basis, but it’s a really good programme.
Speaker 2 (26:25)
That’s brilliant. That’s great. I mean, that’s great for people watching this to understand there is help out there from the local enterprise unit and indeed, board beer. That’s tremendous.
Speaker 1 (26:34)
And it’s a lovely industry to be in. All the craft beer brewers, they will help each other. So if I need a bag of hops or a bag of malt, all I have to do is call around or we have a big WhatsApp group and it won’t take long to find it. And we just pick it up from each other, replace it, or somebody needs to come over here and get something, or one of the machines breaks down. There is never a problem. We like to help each other.
Speaker 2 (27:03)
Love it. Absolutely love it. And what you mentioned earlier was about local is really important. And sustainability, is that important to you? And is it important to the food and drink industry in general?
Speaker 1 (27:15)
I think it’s very important. Bier is a difficult business to associate with sustainability because we do have a lot of waste streams. And And being sustainable is not that easy. But our biggest waste stream is grain. And because we are based in the city, it was difficult to find an outlet for our grain. Both breweries in Ireland are based in the countryside, and any farmer will love to pick up the spent grain and give it to their cows. So at the start, we We had to bring it to a farmer who would mix it in with something and spread it out over a field. Then we found a guy who would make biogas out of the grain, but it all costs money. But then all of a sudden we found a guy who has a factory or a big place beside us here, and he also owns a farm. And he said, I’ll take the grain off you. So he now picks it up. So now we Turn that circle that our grain is actually being used for animal feed. And that’s great because we’re adding to your sustainability then? Sorry?
Speaker 2 (28:44)
Adding to your sustainability?
Speaker 1 (28:46)
Yeah, absolutely. Because our brewery is quite new, it is in itself very efficient. Germans like their sustainability as well, obviously. And we have a couple of features on the Brewhouse that let us use the energy that we have created, reuse it to produce hot water. And we have a programme to reduce the amount of water we use. But I think why is sustainability important for the food industry? It’s important for everybody. And we’re part of everybody.
Speaker 2 (29:27)
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. I like that. And tell me, in terms of, you mentioned off-trade and on-trade and bars and restaurants. How difficult did you find it getting your beer into the industry?
Speaker 1 (29:41)
Yeah, it was difficult. The first pub we went to was the pub that we were drinking in. And the first off-license was the off-license where we used to buy our wine in. And the first supermarket was the supermarket where We do our shopping. And I remember my wife went to the manager in the local SuperValue here and said, Would you take our beer? And he said, Yeah, okay. We’ll take it. And she said, now my goal is that you will spend more with me than I spend with you. And he said, That will never happen. But they can tell you it’s happening now big time. But our beer is pouring in my tennis It’s pouring in the Yacht Club here in Hull. So it was a lot of family connexions that got us going with Now that we’ve built up a bit of brand recognition, we actually get people coming to us looking for it, and it’s become easier. But I was telling you before that we’ve joined up forces with North East. North East is a beer distributor that cover the whole island of Ireland with a great reputation. So we were delighted to hook up with them.
Speaker 1 (31:17)
But they, in certain areas, face the same problem that we had three or four years ago. Even though they have the reputation, our beer does not have the reputation yet. In Cork, for example, Cork is always a difficult market to crack for any brand from Dublin. But with the help of Nor East, who have local representation there, we’re now getting into off-licenses and hopefully a few bars as well, so in Cork. And we did not sell our beer in Northern Ireland, but we now have our first beer pouring in a pub in John Hewitt in Belfast. And also, our beer is available available in about 30 or 35 off-licenses across Northern Ireland and also in the super values in Northern Ireland. So that’s what distribution does for you. It gives you the help. When they go into a new customer, the customer knows them so well, he will take the word for it.
Speaker 2 (32:23)
Brilliant. And I can’t wait to go and taste that paint in the joint here. It’s not very far from where I’m sitting.
Speaker 1 (32:28)
That’d be great.
Speaker 2 (32:30)
I was going to ask you a question there about food and beer. Traditionally, it’s wine and cheese and wine of food. Do you see that there’s a relationship between food and beer?
Speaker 1 (32:46)
Yeah. We, from the start, designed our beers to be great with food. So we have a citrus wheat beer, which is dry rye, citrus, and is fantastic with seafood. So we always made restaurants a big part of our focus. Our IPA is a full-flavoured IPA. It’s great with barbecue, steaks, burgers. Our path, if you can hear, is a little bit sweeter. It’s great with spicy foods, where the sweetness in the beer just takes the off the spicingness.
Speaker 2 (33:31)
Maybe like an Indian or something.
Speaker 1 (33:33)
Yeah, exactly. And we have food pairings suggestions on each of our cans. So with this guy, Derek Walsh, he was really into food pairings of beer. And we love that whole idea of pairing beers with food. And we’ve tried it. To pair beers with cheese is really nice. And most beers will go well with cheese. But even the little exploration of finding out, oh, this beer is nice with this cheese. Buy five or six different beers or buy five or six different cheeses and just try a little bit and see what goes well with together, is great fun. So as far as we are concerned, beer is the new wine, and not everybody likes wine. So you see a nice craft beer in a restaurant more and more. Whereas I think craft beers, in particular, make nice combinations with food, much more so than Heineken. And I know Guinness is fantastic with oysters, but I’m telling you, it’s a marketing thing. Our grunt, our wheat beer, is much nicer with oysters than a pint of Guinness.
Speaker 2 (34:56)
Absolutely brilliant. Well, I’m actually salivating here, and well, you can’t my tummy rumble. On this summit, we’re actually hoping to extend the reach of the businesses. So where can we reach you? If someone wants to get your beer into their restaurant or pub or off-license, How do we reach them, Deon?
Speaker 1 (35:18)
All our off-licenses are on our website. So hopebeer. Ie, there’s a listing of all our retailers. Hopebeer Dublin is our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram handle, and that will also give you a good idea. But if you want to If you have a specific question, just send us an email to info@hopebeer. Ie, and we’ll get back to you immediately with any questions you have. It’s probably the easiest way to do it.
Speaker 2 (35:56)
Yeah, and a B2B setting the same thing. So if I’ve got a problem and I want your beer, just contact me that way as well.
Speaker 1 (36:03)
Call me or call me. I’m sure my telephone number is on the website as well. And yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (36:11)
We’ll put links underneath the video. That’s brilliant. Where do you see the future of the industry and the craft beer industry going?
Speaker 1 (36:21)
Well, where I would hope it goes. I hope I hope the craft beer industry in Ireland will ultimately be as strong as the craft beer industry in the United States, where certain regions in the United States, 15 to 20 % of the beer market is craft beer, is locally brewed craft beer. Here, I said it to you earlier, it’s about three % or maybe it’s four %. I actually think we’ve done very well. We’ve done much better in the last 18 months lockdown than the big brands, although they’re making up for it now. But in a retail setting, we, as the craft beer industry, have done very well because people at Drinking at home are looking for maybe a little bit more of an experience than… Because they weren’t sitting with friends and cheers, here’s a great pint of Guinness. No, they’re sitting at home drinking a beer. So I think we’ve come out of it very well. But three or 4 % is still a long way off. 10, 15. There’s regions, Portland, Oregon, craft beer is over 20 % of the market. People just drink craft beer. They link local beers. They don’t drink.
Speaker 1 (37:48)
And there’s plenty of big brands in the US. So if we could get somewhere near that, then we’re sorted. And I do think that is possible. And I do think we’re there. And I think if you put all the flavour some beers together, I’m including Hubhouse 13 in that category, I think we’re ready at 8 or 9 or 10 %. So we’re getting there. And there is no reason why Ireland, who as a nation are so into local produce and artisan produce It’s great food, great drinks. Look at the whiskey industry, look at the cheeses, everything. That beer can’t be part of that as well. And I’d say the only thing we’ll struggle to turn into a locally-produced industry is wine.
Speaker 2 (38:51)
I wish the weather was different to help that, but I can’t see it. And lastly, this is a six million dollar question. What’s the future for Hope Brewery and and the Oceans 11 crew?
Speaker 1 (39:07)
Well, we’re still bang in the middle of building our brand, and Our brand is now well known in North County, Dublin, and probably in a couple of areas around Dublin. But I would love our brand to be strong in all of Ireland. We do a little bit of export, but that’s not our main priority. It’s fantastic to have Patty’s Bar, Patrick’s Bar in Paris, pouring three of our beers, which is the truth. It’s incredible. And it makes me very proud that that is the case. And we have very good bar customers in Italy and even in one in Russia. But my goal would be that 75 to 80 % of our volume is sold in Ireland and that we’re at reasonably full capacity. We will then have a very good business. And then, listen, I told you we started when I was 51, so I’m now 56 going on 57. So I’m not going to be doing this when I’m 75. So it’s still a good few years ago. But, yeah, we’ll see. I mean, if a craft beer brand can survive the change of ownership, like like, Franciscan well have done extremely well, like 8 Degrees have done extremely well.
Speaker 1 (40:54)
Well, then you’ve done something really good, and we still have a bit to go for that.
Speaker 2 (41:03)
I have to say that was thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyable. And from everyone amazing food and drink, I would like to raise a metaphoric glass and say, Slant you, or should I say, prost to Hope Bear Brewery. And I wish you all the best.
Speaker 1 (41:18)
Thank you, Colm. Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (41:21)
That was first class, thoroughly enjoyed it, and I absolutely know categorically that our viewers will enjoy that, too. So until the next time, which we’ll come back and we’ll have a chat. It was lovely having you on.
Speaker 1 (41:32)
Okay. Brilliant, Colm. And let me know when you’re ready to come over here, and we’d love to have you and show you around.
Speaker 2 (41:41)
Can’t wait. Thanks very much, Ben. Bye-bye.