Focusing on growth at home and in exports

Husband and wife Barbara and Stuart Hughes run Hughes Craft Distillery in Lisburn, Co Antrim, which specialises in small batch spirits under the brand name RubyBlue. They established their business in 2010 and produce a range of award-winning fruit liqueurs. Last year they began producing Ireland's first potato-based vodka.

What's sets your business apart from the competition? We think what we do is real "craft and graft". We remortgaged our home to start up in the midst of the recession because we believe in what we do and we know consumers have become increasingly interested in where their food and drink comes from.

It takes more than three months to make our liqueurs. We prepare the barley base, put all the fruit into the bottles by hand . . . it’s a process a bit like making sloe gin. Our potato-based vodka is Ireland’s first product of this nature.

What was the best piece of business advice you've ever received? An old boss of mine advised me to go set up an overdraft long before we ever needed money as it is difficult to get once you do need it.

What is the biggest mistake you've made in business? We were focused on the American market too early. We had an opportunity to be stocked in BB King's blues and jazz clubs and spent a lot of time and money on it.

The American market demands that you source an importer, distributor and a seller. It was so costly that it would have meant six months without any financial return to the company and in the early days we couldn’t afford to do that.

We spent a lot of time talking to people in the US about why artisan products are worth investing in but they didn’t seem to get it. We were probably a bit before the craft beer movement took hold.

We also spent a huge amount on branding, paying typographers, that sort of thing. I think in the early days we were embarrassed to say that we were a small company. Now we realise that’s a benefit.

And your major success to date? Within a few months of launching our potato vodka, we picked up two huge awards – the Global Vodka Masters 2015 (Gold) and the New York World Wine and Spirits Competition (Silver).

We were awarded two golds and a silver medal in the United States in our first year. Last year we won two golds, one silver and a master award in a blind tasting against the biggest brands in the industry at the international Liqueur Masters. Whom do you most admire in business and why? Richard Branson, because he knows how to have fun and grow his business at the same time.

I like what Blake Mycoskie does with TOMS. They provide shoes, eyesight care, water aid and birth kits to people in need.

Based on your experience in the downturn, are the banks in Ireland open for business to SMEs? Listening to the news it certainly sounds like they are, but I'll maybe come back to answer that after my next meeting with them. Since our previous bank manager moved, we don't really have a go-to person in the bank and have been self-financed from the beginning.

What one piece of advice would you give to the Government to help stimulate the economy? Nurture young businesses. I guess the recession made people cautious but, as a mother, I want my children to think big and I encourage their entrepreneurial spirit. If they have a great idea, why go work for Google when they could be the next Google?

What has been the biggest challenge you have had to face? It was a challenge to get stores to stock RubyBlue until shoppers started asking for it by name.

Buyers said it didn’t matter if they were made in small batches from real fruit or even tasted better as customers only bought the cheapest.

Independent shops such as Celtic Whiskey Shop and Donnybrook Fair have been brilliant. Dublin, Shannon and Belfast airports, restaurants and bars got behind us and, since working with C&R Drinks in Cork, we are now also stocked in SuperValu and Centra.

How do you see the short- term future for your business? Our focus is on growth at home and in the export market and in the last six months we've tripled our business. RubyBlue Chilli Pepper Liqueur is now available in every liquor store in Finland and, with our travel retail sales growing fast, we look to explore markets abroad in 2016.

What's your business worth and would you sell it? The goal and driving force behind starting the business was work-life balance and to be our own bosses. I don't think we fully understood the potential and interest in craft spirits and now that balance is way off, but we love what we do and are building on a successful business.

Perhaps we will find the right partners or investors along the way to make RubyBlue really big. rubyblueliqueur.com