Music stars Bono, the Edge and Hozier are among investors in a Wicklow craft brewery founded by a Laois man that has raised more than €2 million in funding.
The musicians are among several people who have invested in recent months in the Wicklow Wolf craft brewery founded by Mountmellick native Quincey Fennelly.
The Wicklow Wolf Craft Brewing Company, founded by Fennelly and Simon Lynch in 2014, issued new shares for almost €2.4 million.
Bono and the Edge put up €327,000 between them, while Wicklow native Hozier invested almost €110,000, according to The Currency website.
The largest investor, however, was Zatrix Holdings, a company controlled by Mary Ann O’Brien, the founder of chocolate maker Lily O’Brien’s.
Brewery tours
Wicklow Wolf Brewing invested €4 million in a brewery in Newtown Mount Kennedy in 2019, the funding for which came from a €2 million equity raise according to The Currency, which brought in existing shareholders in 2016.
Enterprise Ireland has also backed the company in recent years.
Quincey Fennelly is from a well-known Mountmellick family and is the managing director of Wicklow Wolf Brewery. He was part of the Ballygowan team starting out in the mid-1980s, and has considerable experience in the drinks industry.
He worked with both United Beverages and C&C Wholesale before he moved to live in San Francisco, where he lived with his family for a number of years.
After returning, he set up Wicklow Wolf which now has a range of craft beers available to buy across the country.
The company was also giving tours of the brewery prior to the coronavirus pandemic, but has plans to open a visitor centre as soon as restrictions ease.
Its website lists six full-time staff members, in addition to its distribution company, and it is currently hiring a digital marketing executive as part of its expansion.
