McCracken’s Brewery Boosts Sales In Britain Through Amazon
Northern Ireland craft brewer, McCracken’s Real Ales has won new listings which will enable it to strengthen its position in Great Britain.
The small brewery, which is based in Portadown, county Armagh, now has its range of beers listed on Amazon, the UK’s leading online shopping site.
The Amazon listing, according to Ryan McCracken, the founder and managing director of the craft brewery, followed an approach from Copper Star Gin, which is based on the Wirral, near Liverpool, about listing its products.McCracken’s is a Food NI member.
Mr McCracken explains: “I was approached by Copper Star Gin which has started an online platform to sell its gin along with other local gins. They had also received requests for local craft beers and decided to setup a new digital platform for local beers and other sprits and that’s when they got in touch with us to see if we wanted them to list our product.
“The added bonus to this was they also listed all their products on Amazon.co.uk. This was a marvellous boost. Unlike our counterparts in the rest of the UK and Republic of Ireland, the current restrictions on licensing in Northern Ireland meant we would have been unable to list on Amazon or online ourselves.
“I was delighted to accept the generous offer from Copper Star and our beers are now available through their ecommerce site and, of course, Amazon which delivers throughout the UK. It’s a very exciting boost for our small brewery and will help us to build on the business that initially followed our listing in the Shortcross Gin online site through the tremendous support of the Northern Ireland gin and whiskey distillery,” Ryan adds.
The brewery has also been boosted by a listing of its full range of beers on the online trade platform eebriatrade.com. “EeBriaTrade offers UK wide delivery of the country’s best beer, cider, wine and spirits, sent direct from the producers themselves. This gives us the ability to reach trade customers such as bars, restaurants and hotels across the UK.”
Ryan, an IT manager, began brewing as a hobby in 2014. He launched the craft brewery and the first beers in September 2018 and has since developed a network of outlets in hotels, bars, restaurants and off licences across Northern Ireland. The brewery now has a seven-strong range of award winning locally brewed beers.
