It was, in many respects, a no-brainer. Irish whiskey was the hottest drinks category in the world, tourism was booming, and Killarney was a hotspot for overseas visitors. Building a distillery there made absolute sense. Building a massive distillery, brewery, conference and events centre was an act of great vision and commercial courage, but ultimately, one undone by timing, and its own great ambition.
Killarney Brewing and Distilling Company began with a relatively modest ambition: to create a craft brewery and restaurant in one of Ireland’s busiest tourism towns. Within a decade, it had developed into one of the most ambitious independent drinks projects in Ireland at a time when many others were chasing the same dream, encompassing beer, whiskey, gin, hospitality, events and a purpose-built visitor attraction overlooking the Lakes of Killarney. The physical achievement was considerable; the financial outcome less successful. Pandemic disruption, an estimated €8 million construction overrun, additional borrowing and fundraising shortfalls eventually left the company unable to meet its liabilities. A proposed merger with an American strategic partner fell through in early 2025, and an attempt to rescue the business through examinership failed several months later. The original company was placed in liquidation in July 2025. But now, it will live again.
The Killarney project was founded in August 2013 by Paul Sheahan, Tim O’Donoghue and Liam Healy. All three had strong connections with the United States. Sheehan and O’Donoghue had each spent more than a decade living and working in Chicago, while Healy was based there permanently. That background shaped the company from its inception. They believed that a Killarney-branded drinks business could appeal to Irish consumers, tourists and the large Irish-American market. Using their American network, the founders raised approximately €1.2 million. The funding was used to refurbish the former Killarney Mineral Water premises on Muckross Road and convert it into a microbrewery, taproom and restaurant. The premises opened in 2015 and allowed the business to manufacture, serve and promote its beer at one location. It also provided a direct route to consumers in a town with a large and dependable tourism trade. The company’s early success persuaded its backers that the brand could support a much larger enterprise.
By 2018, the founders were planning to move well beyond the original Muckross Road operation. Their proposal was to build an integrated brewery, whiskey distillery and visitor attraction on a site outside Killarney. The company acquired more than four acres at Killalee in Fossa, on the Ring of Kerry road. The elevated site overlooked the Lakes of Killarney and MacGillycuddy’s Reeks, giving it an obvious advantage as a tourism destination. The proposal combined several businesses under one roof. It included an enlarged brewery, a whiskey distillery, maturation and storage space, a restaurant and bar, a visitor centre, a shop, a café, event facilities, a rooftop terrace and supporting warehouses.
It was an ambitious but commercially understandable model. Beer could be produced and sold immediately. Gin could also provide revenue without the lengthy maturation required for whiskey. Restaurant, visitor and event income could help support the company while its own whiskey matured, while sourced whiskey could establish the Killarney name in the market during the intervening years (even if the latter drew the ire of another whiskey producer based at Scart, who claimed that placenames could and should not be trademarked).
The company raised more than €12 million and commenced construction in 2019. A further €6 million was secured during 2020 and 2021 through the Employment and Investment Incentive scheme, which provides tax relief to investors supporting qualifying Irish businesses. The project was publicly described as a €24 million investment. When plans were announced, the company said Fossa would become Ireland’s largest independently owned, co-located brewery, distillery and visitor experience.
The principal building was initially described as extending to approximately 62,000 square feet. The later property-sale campaign placed the wider campus, including associated warehouse and operational space, at approximately 82,000 square feet.
In March 2021, Killarney launched an eight-year-old premium blend. The sourced whiskey was blended, finished, bottled and labelled in Killarney. It was paired with an imperial stout that had been matured in Killarney whiskey casks, illustrating the intended relationship between the company’s brewing and distilling operations. A later sourced triple-cask Killarney Irish Whiskey was launched in Ireland and Chicago in 2024. The company also produced Killarney Irish Gin and continued to market a range of craft beers.
Killarney’s longer-term ambition was to release whiskey distilled entirely at Fossa. Distilling reportedly commenced in late 2023, but the company’s first fully mature, site-produced whiskey was not expected to reach the market until approximately 2028. From the outset, there were whispers of production challenges, and so, by the time they closed, there was little actual site-distilled stock.
The business also established the Cornerstone Cask Society, through which customers could purchase casks containing Killarney’s first-fill single malt and pot-still spirit. Its wider financial forecasts anticipated selling up to 1,000 casks, potentially generating as much as €7 million. That projected income would later become important because the company was relying on cask sales to provide cash during the years before its own whiskey could be bottled and sold. But while these cask clubs can work well, and have historically worked wonders for the likes of their county comrades Dingle, in the frenzied whiskey-boom climate that Killarney were operating in, cask ‘investment’ operators that were little more than boiler rooms were devouring the market. Selling casks at a cask club price of six to seven thousand euro was made to look like a bad investment, even though clubs are not investment vehicles per se, more a way to support a distillery over the longer term.
Construction at Fossa began in 2019, leaving the development directly exposed to the pandemic and the disruption that followed. According to an independent expert’s report subsequently filed during the examinership process, the company’s financial difficulties arose predominantly from delays and the significant overspend on the Fossa construction project.
Lockdowns affected the availability of labour and materials. International supply chains were disrupted, equipment and construction costs increased, and the opening was delayed. The report placed the cost overrun at approximately €8 million. The increase was estimated at about 36 per cent over the original construction budget. The business was therefore left with an exceptionally well-equipped facility but insufficient cash to market it and carry it through its early trading period.
At the same time, the hospitality element of the company’s business model was severely weakened. The original taproom and restaurant were affected by pandemic restrictions, while the delayed Fossa complex could not generate its planned visitor, restaurant, event and direct-retail income. The restaurant, it should be noted, was fantastic, but not always as busy as it needed to be given its vast size.
With construction funding exhausted and cask income below expectations, the company turned to borrowing. In December 2022, the group raised approximately €4.4 million in loans from several sources to meet construction overruns and provide working capital.
The new Fossa complex began operating around this period, with whiskey distillation commencing approximately a year later. By then, however, the company was carrying a significantly heavier financial burden than envisaged when construction began.
As the distillery moved towards production, Killarney returned to investors with a proposed €7 million Series C funding round. The money was intended to repay or restructure debt, finance the launch and marketing of Killarney whiskey in the United States and provide sufficient working capital to carry the company towards profitability. Only approximately €3.5 million was raised.
The company also expected to raise a further €4 million through the EII scheme. It later said changes to the scheme in 2024 complicated this part of its funding plan.
Court documents subsequently showed that cumulative trading losses had increased to almost €2 million by the end of 2024. At that point, the company’s liabilities exceeded its assets by approximately €3.27 million, leaving it balance-sheet insolvent. By the end of March 2025, almost €2.9 million was outstanding to Bailmo Limited, which held an all-assets debenture over the company.
In early 2025, the company reached a preliminary agreement to merge with an unnamed US strategic partner. Such an arrangement might have provided new capital, distribution expertise and greater access to American retailers. The partner ultimately decided not to proceed.
The collapse of that transaction appears to have been the immediate trigger for examinership. Without the expected strategic investment, Killarney needed to find another source of funding before creditors took enforcement action. On April 16th, 2025, the company petitioned the High Court for examinership. James Anderson of Deloitte was appointed interim examiner.
Examinership gave Killarney temporary court protection from its creditors while Anderson attempted to secure investment and formulate a rescue plan.
The company continued to present the Fossa operation as a viable business if sufficient capital could be found. The site was modern, well equipped and capable of supporting manufacturing, tourism, hospitality and events. The problem was that a prospective investor would also have to address existing debt and provide substantial working capital. No suitable investor was secured within the court-imposed period.
On July 21st, 2025, the High Court appointed Anderson as liquidator. Operations ceased and more than 50 employees were made redundant.
The business owed more than €8 million to dozens of creditors. The creditor list included investors, local suppliers and businesses in Ireland and the United States. Amounts reportedly ranged from less than €200 to more than €823,000. Revenue was owed approximately €143,400, while Kerry County Council was owed slightly more than €108,000.
The company subsequently cited the pandemic, delayed opening, global supply-chain disruption, rising costs, geopolitical uncertainty and trading pressures as factors in its failure. The company also referred to tariff pressures affecting Irish whiskey exports to the US.
Following the liquidation, receivers Michael O’Regan and Declan McDonald of PwC placed the Fossa property on the market. Cushman & Wakefield and Tom Spillane & Co were appointed as joint agents. In October 2025, the property was offered with a guide price above €5.5 million — an ocean away from the €24 million associated with the original development.
The sales process attracted several bidders and later became the subject of controversy, with Kerry businessman Mark Hallisey, a cattle exporter and owner of the nearby Golden Nugget restaurant in Fossa, reportedly offered approximately €5.7 million. The South African-based Renewal Group, led by chief executive Tony McKeever, reportedly submitted an offer exceeding €5.8 million. McKeever subsequently made formal complaints about the conduct of the sale, alleging problems with transparency and communication. PwC stated that it was satisfied with the sales process and believed there was no basis for the complaints against it or Cushman & Wakefield. Neither Hallisey nor the Renewal Group ultimately acquired the property.
On July 17th, 2026, Radio Kerry reported that Spirit Capital had completed the acquisition of the Fossa facility. Spirit Capital is a Swiss investment company headquartered in Zug. Established in 2007, it specialises in acquiring and managing minority and majority interests in small and medium-sized companies, with a particular focus on premium spirits. The completed purchase price has not been disclosed.
Spirit Capital said its commitment to Fossa was long term and that it intended to return the site to productive use on a phased and properly managed basis.
The acquisition relates expressly to the Fossa facility. It has not yet been publicly established whether the transaction included the original Killarney company’s trademarks, sourced whiskey, immature Fossa spirit, beer brands, recipes, distribution agreements or the Muckross Road taproom. The trademark for Killarney whiskey might be the one worth keeping.
Spirit Capital’s principal drinks operation is Spirit France, based at Reux near Pont-l’Évêque in Normandy. The modern Spirit France portfolio originated in the 1990s when two Normandy drinks families joined forces. The Boulard family owned Calvados Boulard, while the Pellerin family owned the more exclusive Calvados Lecompte. The group entered Armagnac through the launch of Le Marque in 2012 and the acquisition of a majority interest in Maison Janneau in 2014. The latter produces excellent armagnac at reasonable prices, and is one of the more widely available brands.
The group says approximately 70 per cent of its sales come from Calvados and 30 per cent from Armagnac. France accounts for less than one-fifth of total sales, making the business strongly dependent on exports. Its important international markets include North America, Scandinavia and Japan. That export reach is significant in the context of Killarney. The original Killarney distillery company possessed an impressive site but struggled to finance international marketing and distribution. Spirit Capital has those capabilities. The Fossa acquisition gives Spirit Capital a modern drinks-production and tourism complex at a price substantially below its replacement cost.
It also gives the group a route into Irish whiskey, a category with significantly greater global recognition and commercial scale than Calvados or Armagnac.
For Killarney, Spirit Capital brings experience that the original company had not yet developed fully: mature spirit stocks, established export markets, international distribution, long-term brand management and the operation of a specialist drinks visitor attraction. This is great news for Killarney, for Fossa, and for Irish whiskey lovers; hopefully those stills will be up and running soon.
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