Another big success for Laois brewery near Stradbally

David Walsh-Kemmis accepts the award. Pic: Feljin Jose

placeholder image — David Walsh-Kemmis accepts the award. Pic: Feljin Jose

For the second year in a row, the team at Ballykilcavan Brewery has taken home a prestigious award from the National Sustainable Business Awards.

Having been named best small to medium sustainable business last year, Ballykilcavan won the best agri-food project in this year’s awards.

The brewery is based on the family farm of David and Lisa Walsh-Kemmis, just outside Stradbally. The award was presented on the same day as the brewery was nominated as the Laois entry to the National Enterprise Award.

Mr Kemmis was delighted and revealed plans for the business to make it even more sustainable.

“The category was open to food and drinks businesses of all sizes throughout Ireland, so we’re absolutely thrilled that the judges recognised our efforts to reduce carbon emissions from the brewery and from the barley that we grow on the farm to make our beers.

"We’ve implemented a number of efficiency measures in the brewery and are now generating 80% of the power we use from our own solar panels. We’ll shortly be applying for planning permission for a small hydro generator, and if that is granted by Laois County Council, we will be able to generate all the energy we need on-site. We’ve also introduced a number of measures on the farm to improve the sustainability of our malting barley, and we estimate that we can reduce its carbon footprint by 30%,” he said.

The Sustainable Business Awards, organised by the Sunday Business Post and sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers, were created to recognise excellence in sustainable business practice, and are adjudicated by an independent panel of experts in environmental, social and governance issues.

“It’s a very rigorous judging process.” said David, “They’re looking for projects that have made a real difference to the environment and to the communities where the businesses are based, and that are independently audited to show that the claims being made are accurate. There were some incredibly impressive companies in our category, including the likes of Diageo and Bread 41, so we were very happy just to make it to the final. To actually win it is almost unbelievable.”

Brewery aims to brew up a win for Laois at National Enterprise Awards

The Ballykilcavan team are busy. They are booked into DM Shelly’s in Portlaoise to celebrate Independent Beer Week, the flagship event promoting independent Irish craft breweries, and they will then be heading to Phoenix Park for Bord Bia Bloom over the June bank holiday weekend.

The South African Gathering 2023 will be held on July 8 at Ballykilcavan Farm & Brewery which is a beautiful venue in Stradbally, Co. Laois