Cork-based brewer Franciscan Well has said that it wants to double its output to over 200,000 kegs in the next five years.
Speaking to the Sunday Independent, founder Shane Long said that the drinks maker wants to achieve “sustainable growth in a tough market”.
Franciscan Well, which was sold to Molson Coors in 2012, has invested over €3 million in a brewery in Cork, with an additional €1 million on the way, and it has also just launched a new beer, Pilgrims.
Rapid Growth
"We want to go to several more countries. Coors is very strong in Eastern Europe, so I'd imagine we'll go there. They've acquired a brewery in Italy and in Spain so I would imagine we'll be following there because there is a route to market," he told the Sunday Independent.
"We went from the equivalent of 7,000 kegs when I was independent in my best year to last year which would have been 90,000 kegs. A fifth is coming from the UK and growing rapidly,” he added.
Long currently works as an adviser to Molson Coors on the Franciscan brand, and has praised the brand for its enabling of the brand and its recent investments in its Cork distillery.
"If the growth keeps going the way it is we'll see that in five years, but anything can change. When we took over the warehouse it was 50,000 square feet and we thought that we would never fill it, but now I think we will,” Long continued.
The group’s new Pilgrim beer will have a lower alcohol content than the beers already produced by the brewer. It’s flagship Chieftain IPA already accounts for 43% of Indian pale ale sales in Ireland.
© 2019 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.
