Mullingar can label startup secures €2m investment
Local entrepreneur and co-founder of Bevcraft Group, Ciarán Gorman has secured a €2m equity investment led by BVP (Business Venture Partners) and the BVP Investor Club for his new startup company, Swaay.
“We needed to get investment into the company, and that’s the milestone we are announcing – that we’ve raised the money to allow us to really push on Sway and buy equipment and hire people and start to really grow the business,” said Ciarán.
The business was set up with the aim of solving a sustainability gap regarding printing labels for cans. Many can labels are printed using plastic films and sleeves as they are cheap and quick to produce.
Tens of billions of plastic sleeves and labels are used globally, and for smaller businesses, it is the only affordable option despite the concern of single-use plastic.
Ciarán said: “Lots of Irish producers have popped up with all sorts of things like soft drinks, flavoured waters, health drinks, functional drinks and so on. And all these guys have the great ideas, great passion, but they don’t have a way to decorate the cans without using plastic or committing themselves to big order quantities.”
“Large orders are] fine if you’re Coca-Cola, but if you’re running a craft brewery in the west of Ireland, a quarter million units is outrageous, it’s not possible. So, it’s really a challenge for the smaller brands, and even for the bigger brands, if they want to try something new.”
Another issue is when brands face the reality of not being able to sell a full production run.
“Some of the producers in the UK, if they don’t sell their capacity in Ireland, they have to send it back to the UK. So that’s two journeys across the Irish Sea that don’t really need to be made. So, there’s obviously the environmental impact there, but there’s also an economic impact for the customers,” said Swaay chief commercial officer, Mark O’Donnell.
The company uses direct-to-shape (DTS) digital print platform technology. Swaay combine manufacturing innovation with software and data to deliver a scalable platform to drive DTS use.
Ciarán said: “It’s about trying to leverage that technology and deliver something much better than what exists at the moment, not just locally or in Ireland. We think this company has probably got the best solution in the world for this marketplace right now. So, it’s really an exciting point and that’s why we brought the investment in, so we can not just target Irish or UK customers, but we can serve them globally.”
The investment from the BVP will allow Swaay to move into commercialisation with a solid foundation.
Stephen Burdock, head of Investments at BVP, said Swaay has an operating team that has built and run manufacturing businesses before, “and in this sector, execution is everything. Short-run labelling is a real and rising cost problem for brands, and cans keep taking share from other packaging formats.
“Swaay has a credible plan to make direct-to-shape printing work at scale. We are proud to lead this round, and it is a strong signal that so many members of the BVP Investor Club chose to back the team alongside us.”
The company team are Jean-François Gaudreault, Sébastien Baril, Ciarán Gorman, and Mark O’Donnell and there are plans for new roles in Mullingar within the next 12 months. Additionally, Swaay has a production and technical hub at Trois-Rivières, Quebec.
Twenty years on from sitting in the same class at St Finian’s College to a new start up business with a €2m investment, Ciarán Gorman and Mark O’Donnell have an exciting journey of sustainability ahead of them.