2021 National Enterprise Awards Overall Winner

The 2021 National Enterprise Awards took place on Thursday 11th February 2021 to recognise local enterprise across Ireland.

The virtual ceremony was presented live from the Mansion House where winners were announced by the Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail Damien English.

Over the course of the event, category winners were selected which culminated in the announcement that Bevcraft Group had been awarded the top prize as the Overall Winners.

The Bevcraft Group is a ‘craft can’ business established in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath in 2016. Bevcraft provide a mobile contract canning service where they transport a canning line, experienced crew, testing equipment and branded cans to breweries for each production run.

In a single day they will convert several thousand litres of beer into pallets of multipack stock ready for distribution and retail. This allows breweries to get their product onto shelves and into export markets whilst focusing on the quality of the product itself rather than the packaging process.

As producers get bigger Bevcraft offer leased lines, branding, wholesale and support options. Bevcraft works closely with both Crown Bevcan and Can Pack.

Increasing Scale

Bevcraft now have 12 canning lines which makes Bevcraft one of the largest ‘craft can business’ in Europe with two facilities in Ireland (Mullingar), two in the UK (Merseyside & Cambridgeshire) and one in Breda in the Netherlands.

This year Bevcraft will handle in the region of 50m cans across its service lines and expects headcount to grow to between 25-30 people over the coming 18mts.

Growth in Irish Craft Beer

The craft beer sector across Europe has grown rapidly over the last decade, although Covid-19 restrictions have markedly changed the operating environment, particularly for route to market via the hospitality. Within Ireland there are an estimated 1,000 people now employed across the wider sector.