Distillery’s biggest ever crowd-funding

A family-run Irish distillery is to embark on the biggest crowd-funding project ever undertaken in this country.

Nephin Whiskey Company, founded by Jude and Paul Davis and Mark Quick in Lahardane, Co Mayo, will tomorrow launch its campaign on crowd-funding website IndieGoGo.com in the hope of raising $150,000 (€114,132).

In return for their cash, investors will be able to reserve the first bottles of peated single malt whiskey from the distillery — a unique perk, according to the company.

Consensus on the target figure was arrived at after deliberation between the partners and represents something of a leap of faith, according to sales director Mr Quick.

“It’s funny, when we were starting we had completely different ideas,” said Mr Quick. “It had to be divisible by three firstly because we’re giving naming rights of the three stills to three investors. That’ll become part of the history of the company and part of the tour.

“It’s a leap of faith, no doubt. We know there’s interest through people looking to buy casks though.”

The crowd-funding target is believed to be the largest in Irish history, eclipsing the previous record of $100,000 garnered by LumaFit Sensor from investors on rival website Kickstarter.

The funds will be pumped into paying for three stills in advance of the company beginning production in August 2015.

In fact, Nephin’s start-date is planned to the minute, with production kicking off at 12pm on August 15, 2015 to coincide with Lahardane’s fair on the same day.

It will be the culmination of a lot of hard work between the three partners, dating back to 2012, giving them all a reason to enjoy the fruits of their labour.