“A NUMBER OF months after you implement these changes you’ll be wondering why you did it the old way.”
Rascals Brewing owner and founder Cathal O’Donoghue set up the award-winning brewery in 2014. Throughout its journey, Rascals Brewing has relied on its Local Enterprise Office, most recently by applying Lean for Business principles to its operations.
Having spent some time in New Zealand, Cathal and his wife were inspired by the many microbreweries in operation and believed that there was space for a similar operation in Ireland.
Rascals Brewing is all about innovating and putting a twist on traditional beers. Not just for beer aficionados, the business aims to help the average punter expand their palette.
“There were loads of smaller breweries operating at that time [in New Zealand]. We saw an opportunity to do something similar in Ireland. We moved home, continued home brewing and won a few competitions for home brewing,” said Cathal.
“The prize for one of those competitions was to get a commercial batch made, which was great because we had a business plan put together and we were in the process of buying second hand equipment from Galway Bay brewery, so that was a bit of a springboard into the market for us,” he explained.
Cathal and his wife Emma set up a brewery in an industrial warehouse in Rathcoole. After many successes, they were able to upgrade to their current facility in Inchicore, on the edge of Dublin 8.
Rascals Brewing has gone from strength to strength since moving, opening up a taproom/restaurant on-site. Customers come from all over Ireland, and indeed the world, to try some of the famous concoctions on offer. It also has a strong presence in the local community, being a favourite haunt for many of the surrounding residents.
The Rascals Brewing journey was aided with the help of Local Enterprise Office. Cathal attended a start your own business course, which helped with the creation of a business plan. Later, help came in the form of grants and Springboard employees, which were equally integral in launching the Rascals brand.
With the move to Inchicore, Cathal and the team looked at ways to further improve the operation. With the Lean for Business approach from Local Enterprise Office, they were able to do just that.
The lean approach helps businesses increase performance and competitiveness.
Speaking of incorporating Lean into Rascals Brewing, Cathal said “For Lean, we got a mentor, who sat down with us and looked at what we were doing in the brewery and how we were managing our sales and predicting our production schedule.
“Before that, we were doing it by feel or reacting, we’d know maybe a month in advance what orders we’d have. It takes a month to brew a batch of beer, so we were reacting quite a lot, like a month or 6 weeks out. He had us put together spreadsheets where we predict at least three months in advance as it can be quite seasonal, so our schedule is locked in.”
The seasonal nature of the brewing is down to changing products at different times of the year. For example, a pink lemonade beer was made for summer, whilst a smokey brown ale has just been brewed for the autumn and winter months.
The Lean for Business mentor also visited the Rascals Brewing team on-site to offer some advice.
“He [the mentor] also came to the brewery and saw what we were doing. Brew day, for example, was taking nine to ten hours when we moved to Inchicore first, and just by recording what we were doing, and looking sat every single stage of the process and breaking it down to little chunks instead of one big process, we were able to save 5 minutes here, 10 minutes here,” said Cathal.
Brewing now takes 7 and a half hours. The guys are happier working there as there’s less overtime and they never have to stay late,” Cathal added.
As evidenced by the example of Rascals Brewing, Lean is about doing things quicker, better and saving costs. Not only were the Lean principles applied to the brewery, but Cathal was also visited by a Lean mentor in the Rascals Brewing restaurant.
“There was lots of time wasted in our restaurant, for example looking for things. Stuff was moved and nothing was kept in the same place all the time, it was just where it was convenient,” said Cathal
The simple solution was to add a labelled shelving system, so everyone knows where everything from pizza boxes to soft drinks are kept. Those small changes add up, as seen in the brewing process and the restaurant for Rascal Brewing.
“Efficiency is the key for every business really,” said Cathal. “If you can streamline your process and make it easier. It’s something I’ve learnt and try to implement whenever we’re doing something new.”
Join thousands of other Irish businesses and adapt Lean businesses principles today with the help of your LEO. Visit here to register your interest.
Lean is one of three capability supports offered by LEOs – Lean, Green and Digital. Check out the dedicated website for all three supports to learn more.
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