Kerry distillery to invest €4m in business this year
The Irish Times

Skellig Six18 ramps up operations as it continues to raise funds for the business

Skellig Six18, which is developing a €10 million micro-distillery and visitor centre along the Ring of Kerry, is expecting to invest about €4 million in the business this year.

Its backers, which include the head of Davy’s private client division, Patrick Cooney, have ploughed €2 million of their own money into the initiative and raised about €1.75 million under the Employment & Investment Incentive Scheme. It is currently raising further funds under the same scheme.

The micro-distillery – the brainchild of June O’Connell, a former partner at legal firm William Fry – is in a former sock manufacturing plant in Cahersiveen and focuses on producing artisan gin and whiskey.

Ms O’Connell said that although Covid had affected their plans, it had also forced them to consider channels they had not considered before, such as corporate gifting. The distillery also gained national distribution for its first product, a hand-crafted gin.