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Irish Times
19-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
‘Ireland's answer to Hollows & Fentimans': The father-daughter team behind Zingibeer are chasing Gen Z drinkers
Founded by a father and daughter team in 2021, Smithfield -based ginger beer brand Zingibeer topped the €500,000 turnover mark for the first time last year, despite a challenging period which saw them forced to rebuild their distribution model. 'We want to be Ireland's answer to Hollows and Fentimans,' co-founder Rachel Byrne told The Irish Times. A former banker with AIB, she said the brand's ginger beer is 'very, very popular amongst students.' The company has sought to stand out from the pack by targeting Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012) as their main customer demographic, securing strategic placements in Dublin bars frequented by college students. 'We are in all the student bars, we are in UCD, in DCU, we are in the Pav in Trinity.' And research showing that young people now are drinking less alcohol than in previous generations doesn't concern Ms Byrne; 'I get the sense that young people now are looking for a little bit more quality over quantity'. READ MORE 'Young people are more considered in their spend. 'What am I actually buying? Who is making this product? What's actually in it?'' She says this trend helps Zingibeer which is vegan, gluten-, preservative-, and sulphite-free and thus more friendly to people with allergies or dietary choices. Zingibeer is manufactured by JJ's Craft Brewing Company in Limerick, a strategic move Rachel and her father Kevin Byrne made to reduce the company's risk. 'We did look at setting up our own brewery, but when it came down to it we didn't want the risk and stress of it,' Ms Byrne said. In an effort to improve its profit margin, Zingibeer changed distributor and has looked to supply some of its product directly to on-trade customers, pubs and restaurants. That decision has boosted margins to a healthier level. The transition, however, left Zingibeer without any distribution for a number of months. Despite this, revenue at the company still grew. 'We hit €500,000 in revenue last year, that was exciting. I remember thinking, 'That's a good chunk of money'.' Revenue grew by 30 per cent to €660,000 in 2024, and the company is expecting growth of 30 per cent to more than €850,000 this year. Zingibeer's rhinoceros hornbill icon will soon be on the sides of cans, as the company looks to continue to develop its product with younger generations in mind. 'It's not a toucan,' Ms Byrne said in a reference to the use of that bird by Guinness. The company created its branding around the national bird of Malaysia, where it first sourced its ginger. Their ginger beer may have entered a relatively small market, but it is growing and they are competing in Ireland against offerings from two large global brands, Hollows & Fentimans and Crabbies. 'We are definitely second to Hollows & Fentimans in terms of volume, and we're winning in a lot of the on-trade accounts,' she said, but the brand is fighting against companies with a '10-year head start'. Being a domestic brand has helped so far, with bars being 'happy' to offer Zingibeer 'because it's Irish and because people really like it.' Outside of Ireland, the Byrnes have begun working with a Danish distributor to bring its brand to an international audience.
The Guardian
08-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Core principles: the return of ‘real' cider
'When I started out 10 years ago, only three of the makers here were even in business,' says Felix Nash, gesturing to the reams of golden bottles that line the shelves of his shop. I'm at the Fine Cider Company in London Fields, east London, with its founder, having arrived with the hope of lapping up all that fine cider has to offer inside a neat hour. (Spoiler alert: I leave thirsty and inspired.) Although much of recent cider-making history is defined by mergers and mass-market production, there's also an exciting re-emergence of terroir-focused production, though that is something Nash claims has always been a part of the UK's agricultural DNA: 'One of the first things the Royal Society ever published was on perry and cider, when John Beale, an early fellow, recognised that an apple variety called redstreak grew particularly well in certain parts of Herefordshire, a concept we now understand as terroir.' These days, much of the UK's cider production is mass market, which has to be only 35% apple concentrate, and the fruit can come from just about anywhere. 'Whatever's cheapest, they'll ferment the syrup up to 14% or 15% ABV, cut it back with water, and then it's ready in two weeks,' Nash says. 'That's the norm for the big makers, which is sad, because until the 1950s some of them used to make champagne cider. Now, terroir isn't so much as given a thought. We have some of the best ingredients to make cider in the world, and more people need to know about it, otherwise it's turned into concentrate.' Ninety per cent of our apple orchards have disappeared since the second world war, whether replanted for other crops, rooted up for development or just plain neglected, and 50% of the ones that do still survive are in poor condition. That's why cider makers are calling on the government to protect our traditional orchards, while local projects such as Find & Foster seek to restore small orchards using old maps from the People's Trust for Endangered Species. (For a deeper dive, read Tomé Morrissy-Swan's fabulous article for the Observer.) A good way to support the industry is, as always, to buy from it. Nash notes that he's currently seeing a funnelling of natural wine drinkers into fine cider, with those who have a penchant for the funky being priced out of buying their favourite bottles as often as they'd like after significant price rises. And for those who want to drink something British, but don't have the budget for English sparkling wine (more on why that costs what it does here), fine cider might also be a solution. If you're still on the fence, let the makers convince you themselves – the London Cider Salon is coming up on 21 June at Tate Modern in London, and provides an opportunity to taste your way through 30 producers (early bird tickets are now on sale for £20). I'll see you there. Townsend Farm Wild-Ferment Cider £3.50 Delli (330ml), 5%. A single serve of assorted apple varieties from Ledbury, dosaged with jonagold apple juice. Wilding Cider Quercus £13.50 Beckford Bottle Shop (750ml), 7.5%. Textured, full and intense – one for amber wine lovers. Kingston Black Pét Nat 2022 £15 Little Pomona (750ml), 7.7%. A single, spontaneous fermentation produces a bright, effervescent cider. Homage to Hogg Premium Cider £16 Naughton Cider Company (750ml), 13%. A Scottish cider aged in oak for 10 months and bottled on cork, like a champagne.
