I’m from Kinsale originally and spent 20 years out of the country working in media management in France, London, Germany and South East Asia.
When I came back to Kinsale in 2007 making cider was not part of the plan.
My wife Geraldine’s family are wine growers in the Loire, however and cider making is very similar to wine making – it’s not at all like beer brewing.
My father-in-law gave me a present of an old fruit press which I used at home for making juice. We have a young family and one day I was sitting feeding the baby and browsing on the internet when I saw that Ireland had the highest, at the time, per capita consumption of cider in the world.
Yet, I was thinking, when we think of cider in this country we automatically think of Bulmers. That was my light bulb moment.
I trained in craft cider making and set up the business, making cider from juices, back sweetened with more juice, and without use of concentrates, so you get a great apple flavour.
Initially I was doing it part time, trying to keep up the media management day job.
In February 2012 I gave that up to work on Stonewell Cider full time. It was very scary and a big step, but I like being master of my own destiny.
Sales have gone crazy ever since. We grew 115 per cent last year, with a turnover of around €190,000.
We are not yet profitable, but are way ahead of our projections. The business currently employs three but I’m trying to get Leader funding because we need five. The pressure is on now to fund our rapid growth.
I’ve always worked in B2B industries. This is B2C and I’m only realising that, when you start something, it’s like lighting a touch paper.
The hard part is keeping up with demand.