Dundalk-born entrepreneur Lyons buys Newry-based craft brewery

Dr Pearse Lyons

Dundalk-born entrepreneur Pearse Lyons has bought a Newry-based craft brewery.

Lyons, who used to work in the Harp Lager brewery in Dundalk, is the brains behind US firm Alltech.

While their main business is animal nutrition, it is also developing a brewing and distilling division.

Now though, Lyons has bought the Station Works brewery from the Haughey family, better known as the owners of Norbrook Laboratories. The deal also includes the Cumberland Breweries at Great Corby in the north of England.

Alltech produces craft beers at its US facility in Kentucky and said this deal will give it a platform for expansion in Europe.

He described the purchase as “a kind of homecoming for me, as well as a big moment for the beverage side of the company and for craft brewing in Britain and Ireland”.

The Station Works brewery began operation in 2013 on a site behind Newry train station.

It brews Finn lager and Foxes Rock pale ale. It also houses a bottling and canning facility.

A spokesperson for Norbrook said: “We are delighted that the company will continue as a trading business under its new ownership, as a key player in the craft brewing industry.

“We will be working closely with the new owners and staff to ensure business continuity throughout the transition process.”

Lyons to put $1bn life sciences firm on the market

Dr Pearse Lyons

Dundalk born Dr Pearse Lyons’s firm Alltech may sell the life sciences division of his animal feed nutrition, brewing and biotech company for more than $1bn (€740m), he confirmed to The Sunday Independent at the weekend.

Advisers PwC were appointed to work with the company on a possible sale about two years ago and put a minimum value of that amount on the division, and it’s possible it still could be sold in the future, he told the Sunday Independent.

“Our Selplex product and its derivatives can be used to treat Alzheimer’s and so on. We’ve got 42 patents on it and on the impact of this and the derivatives of it on the area of Alzheimer’s, and we’re looking at how we bring that to the next level,” the 69-year-old said.

It has expanded its area of focus and Ireland’s fifth wealthiest man added: “We’re also looking at what it could do for inflammation of the brain, of tissue, and in treating cancer.”

Another cutting-edge division of the company, which notched up record sales in March and April, is also emerging to be very valuable.

Prospective buyers for its crop sciences division, which appears to have taken a lead over biotech giants such as Bayer and Syngenta with a world-first new patent, valued it at up to €300m 18 months ago, when the company itself only thought it was worth perhaps €80m at most.

“What we’ve been looking at for the past 15 or 20 years is going to be very big in the future. It’s not luck: we’ve been right at the cutting edge of some things for a long while thanks to our scientists, my being a scientist and the critical mass of our collective curiosity,” he commented, adding that a decision was made to “keep it and do something with it”.

As the company eyes acquisitions that could see its sales rocket from more than €700m a year to as much as €3bn, China, where son Mark is based, is likely to play an increasing role in the company’s future.

“We’ll do some acquisitions in China in the future, as there are great opportunities there. And as Mark plays a bigger role there, and in turn the Chinese market increasingly determines Alltech’s future, so his role in the company increases,” he explained.

A family business, with wife Deirdre helping out with marketing and having designed its impressive modern Kentucky offices and its large European HQ in Dunboyne, Co Meath, and daughter Aoife now working on the human resources side, Dr Lyons anticipates remaining at the helm of the business for as long as possible.

“I’ll hand it over to Mark at some stage, yes – but not before I die,” he affirmed.