Brewery hoping to tap local investors by issuing shares

The Dingle Brewing Company needed to expand but didn’t want to go the traditional route of seeking finance from the banks.

The company, which brews ‘Tom Crean’s Fresh Irish Lager,’ had reached production capacity in its brewery but demand had continued to grow.

The brewery’s director, Jerry O’Sullivan, decided to try and fund the expansion by issuing shares in the year-old brewery.

“The brewery is at maximum capacity so we are looking to expand. We were looking for investors and instead of trying to just get one bank to invest we decided we’d try and get lots of small investors. We are hoping we’ll be able to give something back to them,” said Mr O’Sullivan.

The Dingle Brewing Company is looking to raise €1m to fund a three-phase development plan for the brewery.

The brewery produces 2,000 litres of beer a day and once investment is secured and the brewery extended it is hoped capacity will increase to 2,000 kegs a day.

In order to finance this, 10% of the company has been made available to the public through the issue of ‘D shares.

“We have the site identified and the designs are done. It is just a case of raising the funds. It would be great for the product,” said Mr O’Sullivan.

There are three different options for potential investors — a silver option for €100, that includes a certificate of ownership, a gift pack and a personalised silver-engraved plaque mounted in the brewery.

A gold option for €300. this includes three ‘D’ shares, a certificate of ownership, a gift pack and a personalised gold-engraved plaque in the brewery.

The platinum option for €500 gives investors five ‘D’ shares, a certificate of ownership, a gift pack and a platinum-engraved plaque mounted in the brewery.

The Dingle Brewing Company started production in Jul of 2011 and has grown to the point where, in some local pubs in Dingle, Tom Crean’s Irish Lager is outselling the more established brands.

“It goes out fresh and people really want to buy Irish products. Even in Dublin, 200 miles away, they are calling it local lager,” said Mr O’Sullivan.

There is a long tradition of Kerry men buying shares and Mr O’Sullivan is hoping to tap into this.

“For a long time, the biggest brag in Kerry was my grandad bought Kerry group shares, hopefully in the future, it’llbe Dingle Brewing Company shares,” he said.