Meet The Maker - Anthony & Paul, Directors at CKC
CKC is led by directors Paul Burns and Anthony Farrell, whose day‑to‑day blends strategic planning with close collaboration across production, sales, customers, and suppliers.
With backgrounds in the bar trade and experience running their own award‑winning cocktail bar, they bring hands‑on industry insight, innovation, and a passion for quality to everything CKC creates. Their commitment to craft, from developing their own Anam Irish Citrus to sourcing 99% of ingredients from across the island of Ireland, is at the heart of the brand’s success.
What does a typical day involve?
A typical day, for both, involves a mix of strategic planning and engaging with our teams. We check in with production to ensure everything for the day is running as smoothly as possible, and then check in with sales force teams across the country to assess what support is needed, how the week is looking from a sales perspective, and what we can do to help. We also keep in close contact with customers and suppliers.
Favourite thing about your work?
Hearing how our products and services help support the wonderful people in the hospitality trade to do their jobs speedier and more efficiently. It's great to receive feedback on the quality of our products from customers and clients. This is also backed up by our 15 Great Taste Awards.
What was your first job in the industry?
Both of us started in bars at a really young age. We aspired to one day own our own bar, which we both did, called Blaklist. It was known for award‑winning cocktails and also for the great parties we used to throw.
Interesting fact about your product / production process?
Most cocktails require lemon or lime juice or both; we don’t use either in any of our cocktails. Instead, we created a unique substitute called Anam Irish Citrus. The meaning of Anam in Irish is Soul, so there is a little bit of soul in every one of our drinks.
We also plant a tree for every online sale of any of our bottles.
Favourite food match with one of your products?
Interestingly, we recently completed a cocktail and cheese tasting night in partnership with Indie Fude, and both of us really enjoyed the pairing, which a lot of thought went into from both sides. It was exceptional with the Tommy’s Margarita.
What is the inspiration behind CKC?
We were frustrated that great cocktails were locked behind skilled labour, time, and mess. Busy pubs, events, airports — even homes — wanted quality without the faff. So we asked a simple question: why can’t cocktails work like beer?
Our answer was fresh, premium cocktails — batched exactly like we’d make behind the bar, using high‑quality ingredients, no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives — and crucially, cold‑filled and unpasteurised.
Do you use any local ingredients in your products, and if so, what are they?
Yes we do; we source 99% of our products from the island of Ireland. This proved difficult with the import of lemons and limes, so we created our own Anam Irish Citrus substitute.
We also have partnerships with Copeland and Black Bush for use in our vodka, gin, and whiskey‑based drinks.
Popular posts
