Michael McKillop is a bar to bar salesman.
Or at least he was on his recent 8-week sojourn in New York City, bringing the good news of Lir whiskey.
The man from the Glens of Antrim estimated he was walking about 20 kilometers daily as part of the U.S. launch of his company’s brand.
McKillop said that in the Irish bars he was “saying hello, meeting the managers, meeting staff, meeting owners, just giving it that personal touch.
“I introduced it to Tom McGrath in the Black Sheep, and when some of his customers started to take it, they changed to our whiskey because it was smoother, it was easy to drink. And he’s started to reorder, taking several cases.”
McKillop’s brother, Charlie, and his sister-in-law, Mary, are his business partners; together they have ambitious plans to establish Glens of Antrim Distillery and a visitors’ center in his native village, Cushendall, which is in the heart of a region officially designated as an “Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.” Covid disrupted things, but they’re hopeful of getting planning permission for their commercial site soon.
McKillop said. “There are 400,000 visitors a year driving past on the way to the Giant’s Causeway.
“The coastal route that we’re on was the No. 1 coastal route in 2018. And it’s still on the top 10 coastal drives in the world.”
As for Lir, he said, “We put that together. It took probably six months to create the perfect blend.
“I’ve an agreement with a distillery to produce a blend specifically for me. That agreement will probably be there for the next 10 or 15 years.”
He explained that most of the blends that come out of Ireland are from just a few distilleries.
“What we’re finding is – we did market research here [in the U.S.] – the younger people coming through, the 21- to 40-year-olds, those who haven’t tasted whiskey before, don’t like a harsh whiskey. They want something that’s smooth, that’s easy to drink,” he said.
Indeed, McKillop believes that any group of 20-something tasters would tend to spurn the established whiskeys, and gravitate towards the newer boutique brands.
“So, we created a whiskey for our market. You have to understand your consumer,” he said. “You can do anything in whiskey in a blend: you can make it harsh, you can make it peaty, you can have whatever.”
The family firm, Glens of Antrim Potatoes, has been in operation for more than half a century, “We supply retailers all over Ireland. We wanted to diversity and change the business into something slightly different,” McKillop said. “In 2013, we started to look at crisp production [or ‘chips’ in American parlance] and, in 2015, we wanted to diversify again.”
There was one obvious avenue, given McKillop is himself a whiskey drinker. And he has a strong preference for an “elegant, smooth” whiskey.
“There are a couple of brands out there that I like, but I’m not going to name them,” he said with a laugh.
He also likes a pot-still whiskey, though not every type he’s sampled in that category has been satisfactory. He’d like to go back to an old-fashioned way of building Irish whiskey, back to pre-Prohibition times, once the Glens of Antrim Distillery is completed.
Over the past several years, McKillop has become focused on issues such as cask selection, grain selection, how much sunlight that grain has gotten, how the taste profile comes through. Here’s what Glens of Antrim Distillery’s website says about Lir’s Green Crest: “Triple cask (Alc. 43.5%) -- Nose: Mellow, hints of apple, toffee & cacao Palate: Very pleasant with toffee, vanilla and chocolate Finish: Rich, warming, with a slight malt finish.” As for Red Crest, it says: “X cask finish (Alc. 45%) -- Nose: Cacao, vanilla, caramelised nuts & lemon Palate: Honeyed fruits, pink peppercorn & ginger Finish: Spice, honey, chocolate & a slight touch of pepper.”
Black Crest is in the works.
Meantime, the McKillops have been busy creating and building the brand, with its reference to the legend of the Children of Lir and the 300 years spent on the nearby Sea of Moyle.
Michael McKillop believes it’s an easy name to remember more generally, not least because of its closeness to “lira,” the name of the currency of Turkey and of several other countries, as well as the former currencies of Italy and Israel.
McKillop, who was a player until age 42, can also tap into Glens of Antrim hurling networks when in New York.
“It helps with the personal touch,” he said. “It’s a small community in a big city.”
He’s not, though, under any illusions about the scale of the task for a family-run business.
“The problem is when you launch a whiskey in the likes of the United States, the big distributors don’t want to take you on -- they’re not interested. Yes, they’re interested if you’re in maybe 100 bars and your whiskey is starting to outsell their whiskey, then they look at you as a brand, potentially. It’s very difficult to enter the market.”
But the McKillops, who started out as farmers with cattle and sheep, are practical business people who’ve got their feet on the ground. They pump their profits back into the business.
“It works very well,” he said of his relationship with his partners. “We communicate what’s happening.”
They have meetings about strategy and target markets, and have in place an investor program for larger investors.
There is an understanding that some sacrifice with regard to home life is involved. But family members know that it’s all with the future in mind.
His free time is devoted to his 14-year-old twins, taking them, for example, to and from their games and practice. His son, Carter, plays hurling for the local club, while his daughter, Scarlet, plays both football and camogie for the county.
Michael McKillop is planning another trip to New York in July to follow up on the contacts made, and he intends to make several trips a year. It’s important for him to consult with those who are working for him in the metropolitan New York area and beyond, and to keep abreast of issues like pricing.
“You want to give out a good whiskey and ensure that they enjoy it responsibly as well,” he said.
McKillop feels it’s vital for an owner to hear from the consumer directly.
“That kind of future-proofs where your whiskey is going to go.
“You’ve got to understand the people who are going to be drinking your whiskey, hearing what they’re saying – that’s the reason I’m in Manhattan,” he said, when interviewed in May.
“You’ve got to be on the ground,” McKillop said. “You’ve got to make it happen.”
