Craft beer company Wicklow Wolf has secured a €2m investment from investors including the Halo Business Angel Network (HBAN), which will lead to the creation of 20 jobs.
HBAN facilitates business angel investment and is a joint initiative of InterTradeIreland and Enterprise Ireland. Other investors in the funding round are Enterprise Ireland and undisclosed private investors.
Wicklow Wolf’s owners said that they will use the investment to open a new, larger brewing site in Wicklow, which will enable a 15-fold boost in production capacity. The company then plans to expand domestically and into international markets including the US, Asia and Europe. The company said the new staff will be added to Wicklow Wolf over a five-year period.
According to a company allotment filing, shares to the value of €1,732,000 were issued on 26 October 2016, with 62,573 shares issued priced at €27.67 each.
The investors included Herbert Nominee Services Ltd (€722,000), Peter McManamon (€100,000), Zoe Quinn (€100,000), Oyster Capital Investments Ltd (€400,000), Thomas March (€75,000), William Beamish (€50,000), Simon Lynch (€100,000), David Moore (€50,000) and Fiona O’Carroll (€40,000). Seven other individuals invested smaller amounts ranging from €5,000 to €25,000.
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Founded by Quincey Fennelly and Simon Lynch, the company started brewing in August 2014 and sold its first beer one month later to The Harbour Bar in Bray, Co. Wicklow. The business now supplies to 150 pubs and 550 off-licenses across the island of Ireland.
In 2015, Wicklow Wolf booked a loss of €22,000 but finished the year with cash of €532,000 and net worth of €833,000. The company had total equity invested of €935,000 in December 2015.
The HBAN Food Syndicate, chaired by Stephen Twaddell, contributed €722,000 to the new funding. Twaddell, who is now chair of Wicklow Wolf, was previously president of Kellogg Europe. It is the Food Syndicate’s second investment in Wicklow Wolf in 18 months. In total, the synidcate has invested €800,000 in the company.
Quincey Fennelly commented: “We feel that now we are well-positioned to bring Wicklow Wolf to the next level and the investment will be crucial to that. It’s not just about funding; the angel investors from the Food Syndicate have years of experience in the food and beverages industry. They’ll have a big role to play when we expand overseas, helping us to avoid the mistakes and pitfalls that others before us have fallen into.”
Richard Cullen, lead angel in the HBAN Food Syndicate and co-founder of The Jelly Bean Factory, said: “The company is seeing rapid growth at the moment and I have been through all of the processes that they are currently going through.
“I now sit on the board of Wicklow Wolf and will act as an information resource to them as the look to expand internationally. On top of that, the investors in the syndicate are very much focused in the food sector, so there’s a wealth of knowledge that Wicklow Wolf will be able to tap into.”
Photo: L-R Simon Lynch, Wicklow Wolf; Stephen Twaddell, HBAN Food Syndicate; Quincey Fennelly, Wicklow Wolf
