A brewing company from Laois have been selected as one of the Finalists for the National Enterprise Awards that take place next month.
Ballykilcavan Brewing Company will represent Local Enterprise Office Laois at the prestigious awards that take place on the 1st June in the Round Room at the Mansion House in Dublin.
The news comes just as the Stradbally based company was collecting another award.
For the second year in a row, the team at Ballykilcavan Brewery has taken home a prestigious award from the national Sustainable Business Awards, which were held at a gala event in Dublin last night.
Having been named best small to medium sustainable business last year, Ballykilcavan won the best agri-food project in this year’s awards.
Owner David Walsh-Kemmis explained: “The category was open to food and drinks businesses of all sizes throughout Ireland, so we’re absolutely thrilled that the judges recognised our efforts to reduce carbon emissions from the brewery and from the barley that we grow on the farm to make our beers.
“We’ve implemented a number of efficiency measures in the brewery and are now generating 80% of the power we use from our own solar panels.
“We’ll shortly be applying for planning permission for a small hydro generator, and if that is granted by Laois County Council, we will be able to generate all the energy we need on site.
“We’ve also introduced a number of measures on the farm to improve the sustainability of our malting barley, and we estimate that we can reduce its carbon footprint by 30%.”
The Sustainable Business Awards, organised by the Sunday Business Post and sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers, were created to recognise excellence in sustainable business practice, and are adjudicated by an independent panel of experts in environmental, social and governance issues.
“It’s a very rigorous judging process.” said David, “They’re looking for projects that have made a real difference to the environment and to the communities where the businesses are based, and that are independently audited to show that the claims being made are accurate.
“There were some incredibly impressive companies in our category, including the likes of Diageo and Bread 41, so we were very happy just to make it to the final. To actually win it is almost unbelievable.”
There’s no time to rest on their laurels: the Ballykilcavan team will be in DM Shelly’s in Portlaoise on Thursday and Friday night to celebrate Independent Beer Week, the flagship event promoting independent Irish craft breweries.
And they will then be heading to the Phoenix Park for Bord Bia Bloom over the June bank holiday weekend.
David said: “Tonight (Thursday), there’s a trad night on in Shelly’s and we’ll have our core range beers there for a guided tasting session.
“Tomorrow night, we’re launching our latest core range beer. It’s an Amarillo IPA, brewed with a generous dose of Amarillo hops which give it lots of citrus and tropical fruit flavours, and we’re really excited to sell the first pints of it on Friday.”
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