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15th December 2014
05:01pm GMT
Congratulations are in order for James Winans (pictured top), the man behind Vanguard Beer Collective, which is a marketing and distribution agency to the burgeoning Irish craft beer industry.
The company was set up in mid-2013 by James in order to address the many issues publicans were experiencing when sourcing beer from independent Irish craft breweries.
Vanguard Beer Collective gives publicans and restaurateurs easy access to many different independent microbreweries across the country through a single contact, order, delivery and invoice.
Vanguard Beer Collective also gives pubs and restaurants the opportunity to have rotation taps and access to many limited and seasonal beers.
So if you see a fancy new craft beer in your local, it could potentially be thanks to James and the Vanguard Beer Collective.
JOE sat down with James to find out what it’s like to be crowned the AIB Start-up Academy Wildcard. We'll have a video interview with James later in the week, but for now, here's a snippet from our chat...
JOE: James, firstly, congratulations on winning the AIB Start-up Academy Wildcard! How does it feel to make it through to the next stage?
James Winans: Thanks very much. I have to say, it’s very, very exciting. It was great to hear the news this morning. Talk about a fantastic way to start a Monday morning!
JOE: Did you fancy your chances of winning the Wildcard?
JW: Well, we tried not to get too excited, but we were definitely secretly hoping we could make it through. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it during the first phase, but we’re glad to have made it through thanks to the Wildcard.
JOE: Did you do anything in particular to get more votes during the final stages of the Wildcard?
JW: Absolutely. During the beginning, middle and final stages we really hit our network hard and asked all of our breweries to vote for us and get our name out there. And it evidently paid off! Thanks are due to everyone who helped us out and voted for us!
James Winans of Vanguard Beer Collective (left), Niall McGarry Founder of JOE.ie (right)
JOE: So how many people would you have in your network? JW: We have 16 breweries, with around 150 customers and all the assorted barmen and everyone else who goes along with that. So lots of support and a big thanks to everyone who took the time to vote for us. We really can’t stress that enough. JOE: How will you use this opportunity to your advantage? JW: I suppose the immediate opportunity is the media exposure that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to achieve right now. And the AIB Start-up Academy is a fantastic way to hone our skills and make sure we’re doing the best we can do right now. So we’ll be looking forward to getting stuck into that in January. Roll on the new year.
