A Co Down distillery boss has hit out at the ongoing hike in energy rates after his electricity bill jumped by 37% in just one month.
Gareth Irvine from the Copeland Distillery in Donaghadee was left stunned when he received his latest business electricity bill from Power NI.
It totalled £10,890.58 for the month of August compared to around £7,900 the previous month.
Read more: NI café owner speaks out after receiving £9,000 monthly electricity bill
Describing the price rise as "madness", Gareth told Belfast Live : "I was walking around turning off all the lights after reading it! I had said to my partner on Saturday morning that I had a feeling our electric bill will have skyrocketed so I went into work and there you are!
"It's not great but what do you do these days? You just have to take it. The part that gets me is that they put it up and then say they'll collect it by direct debit, seemingly without a care in the world."
Gareth added: "Obviously as a distillery we use a lot of electricity so we're used to our bills being around £6,000 or £7,000 a month on average but not just shy of £11,000.
"I assume it will go up again but if it increases by 15% or 20% that will be up to around £13,500. We are prepared for that but we also have to be realistic. We're not going to throw good money away just to keep going."
In May, Power NI announced a 27.5% price increase for customers, which came into effect from July 1 - the biggest price rise since October 2008.
The company said the change was "entirely due to the sustained unparalleled price increases witnessed in the wholesale energy markets, which have been impacted by ongoing global issues".
Producing a range of Irish gins, rums and whiskey, Copeland is one of Ireland’s fastest-growing and most innovative distilleries.
Established in 2016 by Gareth, using funds raised via crowdfunding, Copeland moved into its current home in 2019, revitalising the former cinema and Ards bottling company site, which lay unoccupied for more than 20 years.
The distillery is now home to award-winning gins, cask-aged rums and a new range of malt and pot-still whiskey.
"We will manage and get through it but the unfortunate part for us is we're a consumer business too so we can't increase our prices. The cost of living doesn't allow for it and we don't want to do that," Gareth added.
"We'll just have to take it for now and try to manage it as best we can. I don't plan to make changes to staff or how we do things here. I employ 15 people and we're trying to hire more but this might slow that down a bit.
"We pay a lot of money towards duty and tax throughout the year but something has to give. We had a staff meeting here on Monday morning and discussed how we need to be conscious.
"We run the distillery, visitors centre and a cafe as well as an office so there's not much more we can do but we're not exactly throwing energy away or leaving lights on for the craic! There's a reason for everything we do."
Gareth said he feels that all the appeals for more intervention from the government to deal with staggering cost increases is "falling on deaf ears"
"There seems to be no response and to be honest, I can't see any real change happening," he added.
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