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”.
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“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.
