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BY ANY MEASURE, it has been a bleak decade for Ireland’s famous pubs industry.
An estimated 2,000 venues have closed, many falling victim to absurd costs as the country went through its collective Celtic Tiger-era property madness.
But according to the co-founder of the Galway Bay Brewery, one of the few pub success stories to emerge from the recession, venue owners also need to shoulder their share of the blame for the industry’s near-terminal decline.
“Before 2007, rents were extortionate, you had to turn over so much money to make a pub worth it,” Niall Walsh told TheJournal.ie.
But the other thing we saw was that every pub was giving the exact same offering, which is crazy. Can you imagine every restaurant giving the same offering?”
Just over 10 years after launching their first venture together, Walsh and business partner Jason O’Connell own nine bars and a thriving craft brewery under the Galway Bay banner, as well as a new beer-importation company. And all without a pint of Guinness to be seen.
A pizza flop
However their first idea was anything but a resounding success. The pair, who both had backgrounds in the hospitality trade, started off in 2004 with a few thousand euro in their own money and plans for a string of up to 30 gourmet pizza delivery outlets under their Pizza Eile brand.
The idea never made it past the first rented kitchen space in Galway as it became clear consumers weren’t ready to pay a premium for flavours like aromatic duck and banana with blue cheese.
“I wouldn’t say they were crazy pizzas, if they worked they would be very good,” Walsh said. ”But people who ordered pizzas, they were used to Four Star, Domino’s, things like that.”
The pair switched tack to serving gourmet burgers and the business took off, later relocating to a larger venue – the cavernous The Oslo in Salthill, Galway – where they also set up a beer menu stocked with craft brews.
It was there that the Galway Bay Brewery was born in 2009, although with very modest ambitions.
“Really, it wasn’t an intentional business move, it was more an idea for the pub. We had a big hall down the back and we wanted to brew our own beer on a small scale.
At that time we only had two pubs and a restaurant, there was no big plan to spread across the country. Once we got up and running we saw the potential, that it had legs from there.”
By that stage the financial crisis had hit and the Irish economy had shifted into reverse. That meant money was very tight, but also that there were opportunities to be had with landlords suddenly willing to offer very favourable terms.
“There were lots of pubs closing down, lots of people coming to us asking us to come in and take their pubs on.”
But Walsh said the pair refused to cut corners in the kitchen, buying the best products and staying clear of frozen goods. As long as the food, the service and the beer was good – and all available at a reasonable price – the punters didn’t care if the venues were a bit scruffy, it seemed.
A lot of money was saved on decorating, everything we had we got from salvage yards and junk yards. We just worked with what we could, we made the best of it and it made our bars look a little bit different to other bars.”
The brewery
And there was the ace in the hole, their own rapidly-expanding craft brew offering – which they only made available on-tap in the Galway Bay Brewery-branded pubs.
Since their first brewery was started in the pub hall, it has been through a series of moves, the latest to what will be its long-term home in the Ballybrit industrial estate outside Galway. Three years ago the company also took on a new head brewer in Monaghan native Chris Treanor.
“We’re producing world-class beers now, as opposed to three years ago when they were just OK,” Walsh said.
Last year the Galway Bay Brewery produced 3,500 hectolitres of beer, an output expected to grow about two-thirds this year.
But even that will be insignificant compared to the up to 40,000 hectolitres the pair are planning to produce from a new brewery on-site, for which they will need to raise €1 million of funding.
To put that production in context, the total output from all Ireland’s microbreweries was estimated at 86,000 hectolitres last year.
The pair will also open a tenth venue in Dublin’s Grand Canal Docks next year to add to their portfolio of pubs in both Galway and the capital. They have been scouting locations for new pubs from Northern Ireland to Cork and Limerick, as well as other areas.
The brewery has expanded into export markets and bottled beer sales with plans to spread from its current sales footprint across the British Isles to mainland Europe over the next 12 months.
Last year the various arms of their business took in over €12 million and Walsh said he expected the figure for the brewery, at least, to increase another 50% this year.
But in case anyone would think the pair were blessed with the midas touch when it came to the drinks trade, there have been a few missteps along the way.
Their pub empire was recently scaled back by one with the closure of the slow-trading The Scholars Rest in Galway, one of several businesses the pair has wound up over the past decade.
There was also a wake-up call last July when JD Wetherspoon opened its first pub in the Republic, The Three Tun Tavern, pouring sub-€3 pints a few hundred metres from the duo’s The Dark Horse in Blackrock, south Dublin.
“We were just holding in there for the first six months to a year when they were serving similar beers to us at a fraction of the price … I have no idea how they do it because margins are tight as it is.”
But Walsh said the Galway Bay Brewery venue had now come back “close to where it was” and that its customers were happy to pay for quality.
I don’t want to be critical of (JD Wetherspoon), they are what they are, but their offering is pretty basic. I know every end of production and you can’t produce a good pint of beer for €3.
“I think they have a different audience to what we are looking for and a lot of that is down to the beer we produce. Sometimes, we use our beer as a way of changing the crowd in the pub: we don’t serve Guinness and Budweiser and things like that- that alone attracts only a certain type of customer into our bars.”
Despite Irish craft beer going through a boom about two decades ago that later fizzled out, Walsh said he couldn’t see anything derailing the burgeoning industry which now boasted an estimated 63 microbreweries of various sizes.
“The market is very different today. Young people are very well-travelled, they’re used to going places like the US and Australia and getting great craft beer.
“And I think the drinking culture has changed in Ireland, fewer young people want to go out and just get pissed. The majority of our customers want a nice beer, some good food and to have a chat – and wake up the next day feeling OK. They’re nice clients to deal with and that’s a big part of what we do.”
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It’s your ‘civic duty’ to pay water charges.
While a foreign vulture fund is able to pay .000026% tax on €77m profit.
Do me a favour!
If big corporations paid their fair share and the tax payer wasn’t sending billions out of the Country every year to repay bank debt just think of the kind of Country we’d have..
If you compared the net tax take from multinationals (including income tax levied on their employees) and compared it to the combined tax take (after social transfers) of all SF/AAAPBP/SP/SWP voters, I think it would highlight who the real leeches are in this sham of a state.
@Denito:
I think it is time the people of Ireland took this country back and said good buy
to FF/FG/LABOUR for good.
@Denito: Exactly- the multinationals, the corporate sector generally, the Small Firms Association, the catering and ‘hospitality’ sector, farmers, cowboy builders and many, many mouthpieces who bleat on about “rural Ireland” until they turn up on revenue’s tax defaulters list, leeches one-and-all! Oh, and BTW, income tax derived from employees of multinationals is paid by THE WORKERS, not their bosses!
@Denito: So, to extend your logic then, because someone pays, say income tax, they should be allowed to avoid paying other taxes, like vat or tax on fuel and stuff then.
Income tax is paid by the worker, not the company, and I don’t support any of the parties you mention in your post by the way.
@Eyepopper: ah no its your civic duty to pay if you waste water. Hum let’s see I for that reason did not pay the water bill. Due to the fact the EU directive and Fine Gael whole argument again stated by Richard Burton is the the polluter pay principle for those who use excessive water. I did not do that so I did not pay and will not pay. Really Mary Lou McDonald missed that point.
My civic duty is to my fellow Irish Citizen by voting for politicians who think outside the box and do not stay inside the box with their enemies.
Enda’s running away again coz the water issue needs clarification, after the commission’s report.
@Dave Doyle: no Enda gone xmas shopping with his wifey on his over inflated salary of €201,000 a year plus expenses and of course his €5000 increase this year. Ah if only I could have his neck, he runs like the red shank and maybe he has the Irish constitution in his pocket to take out and wave at his wife when she annoys him. He only got married at 41 years of age, their 25 years married so he 66 years old . He needs a rest from all hassles.
@Clever Jake: Simon The conman has annoyed you Jake. His homeless project is a disaster, this government will not last another year. His hot air hissing is because he is shamed into a defenceless argument based on taking water an essential source for human life and putting a charge on it.
He gave me a great Idea, I’m off to the recycling centre to get the empty baldly gown plastic bottle to fill them with water and sell them to people to wash their cars. Thanks Simon you are a failed lost politician.
Seems Richard bruton carried on government policy. Not answering the question he was asked. Just waffled away. They don’t seem to remember the are not just answering to the td that asks the question but the public listening at home. Waffle doesn’t cut it.
Three times he was asked about referendum on water for public ownership. He ignored the question each time. Why?
All of this avoidance to enshrine Irish Water into the Constitution and reluctance to address the issue makes one has to wonder if Irish Water has already been sold.
Why is he going to the US and is he travelling standard class onboard an Are Lingus flight. Or is he using the Gulfstream jet at over €10,000 per hour.
@Michael Clinton: Moan moan moan. He is not there on holiday but rather an important trade mission. Considering the investment US companies have put into this country and Irish into the US I think such trips are worth their price or do you think we should all stay home and do nothing?
Just to keep you in the loop john, we have a superb Enterprise board that have worked very hard to get US companies to invest. All this rubber necked turnip is doing is going to take praise for the hard work others have accomplished. So as a taxpayer I am perfectly entitled to as questions and if “moan”.
@Michael Clinton: Of course Enterprise Ireland do great work but don’t underestimate the power of government. I know for a fact as I work for a US company that moved here. Kenny while hated in Ireland in generally liked by business in the US. I have been at the lunches and open evenings in San Francisco, DC and New York so less of the negativity.
@John Reese: power of govt ? this is kenny we are talking about a clown who bearly knows how to tie his shoelaces he is gone away again to avoid any questions on water, If he is so liked in the USA let him stay there because as you say he is hated here….
Well let him stay in the US and they are welcome to him. As I said I am as a taxpayer entitled to my opinion and well entitled to question anything that any person claiming to represent me does or says. If you don’t like what I say then kindly move on .
@Michael Clinton: No need to get all jumpy. I am pointing out a fact of trade missions. Your big American CEO gets a kick out of meeting a PM be that Irish or whatever country is trying to woo them. It is competition and to suggest that Kenny can’t even string two words together is lazy and wrong.
Kenny is as thick as a bag of sledgehammers, the waster has hung around the dail since he inherited his father’s seat. What has this buffoon contributed to the country ?????…. Sweet F/A. The gombeen stumbles from one shambles to another mumbling about how much confidence he has in his cohorts. He is an embarrassment to the country and if the American people want him so bad they are welcome to him. Everything this clown touches falls apart. Look at the children’s referendum, that was deemed illegal (and the money was never returned). What about the Senad vote.. Any other person call that referendum and those layabouts would be gone. Kenny is a prize clown that happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Ok it’s no point debating with a fool . Happy Christmas
@Peter Donnelly. A clown that can’t tie his shoe laces? And only gone to the US to avoid leaders questions? You realize by making such childish statements you completely undermine whatever is you are trying to say.
For all his faults, at least criticize constructively, but from what little I’ve seen from you, I seriously doubt you have the brain power.
That’s charming indeed, says more about you buddy and how pig ignorant you are. You fit right into the fg camp of ignorance. I can assure you that I will have a great Christmas. I wish the same to you and yours.
Ah,come on,bring this joke of governance to an end.the Irish people want and deserve a government,not this political play acting by fg.
We got what we voted for. If we had an election tomorrow, what do you think would actually change?
@(((Jason))): the govt ?
Unfortunately Peter it wouldn’t. An election tomorrow would see most of them reelected. And as recently proven, FF/FG are the same party who control the power and opposition. Nothing will change, Irish water will remain. The only way to rid the country of it is to remove ff/fg from power
Does Mary Lou realise most of rural Ireland have been paying fir water for years ?
God that argument annoys me so much. It’s the most blatant example of begrudgery imaginable. Grow up.
@Lurfic: Is it the fact that he pays for his private water supply that annoys you or that he also has to go ahead then pay for your water on top of that? Can you clarify your annoyance?
@John Reese: Someone shouod tell that stupid woman that many of her constituents don’t have a front and back door, all they have is a sleeping bag.
Begrudgery for what. How else do you expect people in rural areas to get clean water Your comment is annoying because of how uninformed it is.
Same can be said for urban. Should urban dwellers pay more for Shannon water when it happens to to the greater distance? No just like rural people should not have to fork out
Tis grand for some..
MLMcD & LeoV texting again during Leaders Q time
How hard can it be to find out how much upgrading the water network is going to cost. Once that’s done create a fund, if required apply a scaled tax for water usage. Set a standard rate that everyone pays and then problem solved. Now we are all used to the idea that water as a utility being free but the simple truth is that it’s not completely free. If we all contribute then the cheaper it will be to fund
@Éannus.. nobody is “used to the idea that water as a utility being free”; it has never been free. The “simple truth” is that it is already being paid for, but you already know that, don’t you? TBH, I don’t really see how you see the wilfully thick approach advancing your argument..
Sinn Fein need to grow a pair and stop letting the tail wave the dog. It’s because of their initial capitulation that the lowest common denominator is setting policy on this issue. Most people in this country care about the environment and want to see sustainable policies put in place. It’s time for SF and FF to prove they’re grown-up parties and tell Paul Murphy and his populist mates where to go with themselves.
Mary Lou is a two faced four chinned fcuker SF Agreed with Water charges until foetus face Murphy stole the lime light and they collect water charges in NI Such hypocrisy !!!
But they will bring out a tax that everyone pays that will be used to pay for water. Is that not illegal after the ECJ ruled that owners of wells do not have to pay for water and therefore well owners who pay this tax are making the government break the ECJ ruling?
http://www.independent.ie/business/farming/well-owners-evade-threat-of-water-levies-26807579.html
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/environment/water_services/water_charges.html#l6a2ae
“Types of water/wastewater system If your water comes from a private well or a group water scheme and you have a private wastewater treatment system (such as a septic tank) you are not regarded as a customer of Irish Water and do not have to pay domestic water charges. “
So how can these people be taxed then?
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