MARGARET River Beverages owner Bernard Ryan is frothing almost as much as his famous soft drinks when he proudly introduces the co-owners of his new alcoholic beverage business daughters Georgia and Kate.
It's no wonder he is so excited. Just a few short years ago, the then-teenage girls looked their father in the eye and told him firmly: "We'll do some work for you in the holidays, but don't ever expect us to go into the business."
That all changed when Mr Ryan followed up on repeated suggestions from his soft drink customers to add alcohol.
Kate and Georgia Ryan, now 26 and 22 respectively, jumped at the offer to become joint owners of the new business Black Kite.
The alcohol-based line is now in the same stable and factory as the 14-year-old Marg aret River Beverages with both their father Bernard and fourth business partner Greg Sutton in Minchin Way.
"We have grown up with Dad having the business and have always helped out, going into market stalls and handing out tastings," Kate said.
"Customers were always saying: 'you should add booze to this!'. I think Dad was trying to find a way to tie us into the business so we registered our business name in 2011."
With the "alcopops" tax imposing rigorous inspections and processes, the team finally obtained Black Kite's excise licence late last year.
But a broken-down 50-year-old bottling machine had to be side-lined to make way for a $400,000-plus Italian machine before the new lines could really hit the summer market.
The new lines have already been tested on the market after being produced this year by an external contractor.
But this week the Margaret River factory rolled out its first bottles of alcoholic ginger beer and hitherto unrepresented in the market an alcoholic lemon lime and bitters.
"We really wanted to stay away from that whole teen girl market which the ready-to-drink market is often accused of targeting," Kate said.
"We've developed our labels and marketing to appeal to more sophisticated drinkers and with our brown bottles we are trying to align more with the craft beer market."
With a new capacity to produce 200,000 cases per year four times their previous output Margaret River Beverages and Black Kite are now looking for new premises in the local area.
