Seven brothers have turned their love of beer into a brewery business – and even opened their own bar
The seven brothers from Salford now employ 18 people to work in their brewery and bar in Manchester
FOR many people, setting up your own brewery business and having beer on tap sounds like a dream.
But for Keith McAvoy and his six brothers it has become their reality.
They set up the Seven Bro7hers Brewery back in July 2014 and since then the business has gone from strength to strength.
The seven brothers now employ a total of 18 people to work at their brewery and bar in Salford and their beer is sold all over the country.
Keith told The Sun Online: “We’ve always been interested in beer. We grew up brewing beer with our dad.
“It has always been a bit of a dream for all seven of us to work together in a business”.
“We are distributed all over the country. We’re even sold in Terminal One in Manchester airport”.
They started the company with a loan from the government-backed Start-Up Loans Company, which offers 6 per cent fixed rate on borrowing up to £25,000.
Keith said: “I got a business plan together with two of my brothers and it ended up being the perfect partnership.
“The loan was interest free for a year and they have really competitive rates, much lower than any other business loan we looked at.”
This allowed the brothers, who all manage different parts of the business, to set up deals with a few distributors.
A further cash injection sourced by a second loan allowed them to sign distribution deals with the Co-Op and Booths.
Keith said: “There has even been an offer to trade through Tesco but we’ve held off because can’t produce enough beer at the moment.”
“We’re moving to another brewery in Salford soon, a bigger unit. This will allow us to double the amount of beer we can produce”.
By its third year the business they had an annual turnover of £300,000 and this year Keith believes that it could exceed £500,000 mark.
They opened the Seven Bro7hers Beerhouse in Ancoats area of Manchester in December last year.
They hope to open another two bars – hopefully in Leeds and Liverpool – by the end of next year.
How to get a start-up business loan
IF you need financial support in setting up your business, you can get loans of up to £25,000 to help along the way.
- Vrigin StartUP offers government-backed loans from £500 to £25,000 to help entrepreneurs launching or growing a business that’s under two-years-old in England or Scotland. It has a rate of 6 per cent interest.
- The Start-Up Loans Company, which lends government subsidised loans up to £25,000 at a rate of 6 per cent.
- The Princes Trust also offers loans, up to £5,000, at a rate of 6.2 per cent.
But what’s it like working with family? Keith admits that it’s not always plain sailing.
“It’s challenging. There have been some ups and downs, some big downs and and some real highs.”
“You think you know your brothers pretty well but when you work together, you get to know each other in different ways.”
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