JAY BRADLEY
The Man with Whiskey in His DNA
Jay Bradley is the founder of Craft Irish Whiskey Co. and co-founder of Whiskey & Wealth Club. The Craft Irish Whiskey Co. is the first and only rare and collectible Irish whiskey company to cask at 52% ABV. They create limited “Rare Release” craft whiskies, and each release is numbered and highly collectible.
Bradley, became a whiskey advocate after reading a book called ‘Truths about Whisky,’ published in 1879. It explained how The Liberties in Dublin (where he was born), an area in the center of the city, was the epicenter of global whiskey. Dublin whiskey was known as the ‘gold standard’ spirit at the time. He studied the history of Irish whiskey and learned that it had declined in production since 1914 due to geo-political issues such as World Wars, civil wars and embargos beyond the Irish whiskey distilleries’ control.
The Craft Irish Whiskey Co. which is based in Dublin, Ireland, crafts and sells ultra-premium craft Irish whiskey procured from all corners of Ireland. Their spirits embody the traditions of Irish whiskey but have a unique signature full-bodied quality.
The Whiskey & Wealth Club offers private individuals access to the rarefied world of wholesale premium cask whiskey ownership. They have opened up a sector once reserved only for a select group of industry insiders. Their private investors can tap into the booming global whiskey market; to buy, hold and sell on for profit; or simply to bottle and enjoy.
Our Editor at Large, Raj Gill, had the privilege to meet with Jay and he gave her an incredible insight into his life and work.
How did you get into this line of work?
It’s really a combination of everything I’ve done before, coming together. I took a look at the back shelf of my own whiskey bar and saw that there were only two bottles of Irish whiskey but so many of all the others. I looked at other bars, and it was the same story. I began to question it - if the Irish invented whiskey, why was it so underserved? Why were we so bad at selling it across the world? That was what made me want to get into Irish whiskey - to right that wrong.
Are your family also in the business, or are you in the minority? Where do you find support?
My family is not in the business, I started it by myself. But my dad and I sat down and came up with the idea together, so I certainly owe a lot of it to him. He was going through chemo at the time, for the cancer that would eventually take him from us, and knowing what he was going through lit a fire under me - my own struggles were nothing compared to what he was going through - and so that supported me to keep on going.
And what obstacles have you overcome?
Every obstacle imaginable really! You name it, we came up against it. No capital to begin with, every door closed, no banks would work with us, competitors in the whiskey industry hated what we were doing; they made up false narratives about us, wrote bad articles, simply because Whiskey & Wealth Club had the best whiskey at the best prices.
But the biggest obstacle was money. I had to build Whiskey & Wealth Club from nothing so I could have the capital to start The Craft Irish Whiskey Co. Whiskey and Wealth Club became the bank if you will. I could have taken the millions we made and ridden off into the sunset but I didn’t. I poured it all into The Craft Irish Whiskey Co., reinvesting every penny to make it a success.
What is your typical day like?
I get up at 7am and go to the gym, then sauna, shower, steam room. I have a nice breakfast then begin meetings at around 9am with my Sales & Marketing team. And then it’s meetings all day long.
I rarely drink whiskey during the week unless I’m doing a tasting for someone, but otherwise, it’s just a Friday evening, after work. Of course if I go down to the barrels I’ll be tasting whiskey. That tends to be once a week, depending on the barrels. So during that I’ll probably have a few whiskeys but I try to do it on a Friday as well.
There’s been a lot of talk lately about people wanting work/life balance, how do you manage it?
It can be challenging to balance my work and home life considering I have three kids, another one on the way, and I’m building four companies. Let alone making time to hang out with friends, play golf, or go to the gym. So I wouldn’t say I’ve been managing a work/life balance particularly well lately, but the only way to do it is to be structured. Have time set aside for everything and make sure you make time for everything.
You can’t spend 18 hours a day just on business, much as I’d like to, it just doesn’t make sense. But you have to when the chips are down and your back’s against the wall so there have been many times in the last few years where I had to make sacrifices and pour all my time into work. But then there are other times when you can take time off - luckily for me, my girlfriend likes to lie in when we’re on holiday so I tend to wake up, work from 7-11am and then we’ll go to the gym together. So it’s about fitting it all in, when you can.
You overcame many obstacles starting the company, and yet you made it look so seamless. What’s the secret?
It’s not really seamless, while it may look that way from the outside. The old adage about it being an overnight success…. it took me 17 years of being a CEO to become ‘an overnight success’. I’ve had many successes and failures, many life lessons, many hurts and many joys but the main thing is that every time you dust yourself off and start again, you’re not starting from zero. You’re starting from experience, and every time there’s more experience.