Burnie Mayor asks for $2 million help with his new tourism venture

Burnie City Mayor and property mogul Steve Kons has asked the State Government for $2 million in grant assistance to get his whisky distillery venture off the ground. READ HIS SUBMISSION >>

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A TASMANIAN Mayor has asked the State Government for $2 million to get his whisky business off the ground, saying it is just the tonic his city needs to recover from the COVID-19 tourism downturn.

Burnie City Mayor Steve Kons – a former Deputy Premier of Tasmania and a current bottle shop, hotel and property owner – has lodged a submission asking the Premier’s Economic and Social Recovery Advisory Council for the funds to buy equipment for his proposed Tasmanian Ikon Distillery venture.

The venture would be developed in a landmark brick building on Burnie’s former pulp mill site and Mayor Kons would put up $4.2m of the $6.2m total needed.

In the submission, Mayor Kons said the project was dependant on a State Government loan to support the acquisition of equipment.

Burnie Mayor Steve Kons in front of his newly developed IKON Hotel at Burnie

Mayor Kons said the coronavirus pandemic had ignited rather than poured ice on his plans.

“In terms of Tasmania’s COVID-19 recovery this project will be an ideal fit with commissioning scheduled for 2022,” his submission says.

The business plan said the venue would host the world’s biggest collection of commercial available whiskies (1500).

Hotel Skansen in Sweden currently holds the record with a collection of 1179.

It would boast private tasting rooms, a single malt distillery and a room dedicated to Tasmanian spirits.

“The plan is to work with existing distilleries and breweries not to compete with them,’ the submission says,

A planned mobile canning operation would also be available to other brewers.

Mayor Kons said locals held a soft spot for the distillery site as it once housed the pulp mill’s canteen, gym and ballroom.

The closed Tas Paper Burnie mill, formerly Associated Pulp & Paper Mills (A.P.P.M.), Burnie

“The project will breathe life into what some viewed as an eyesore,” he said.

The business plan says the Tasmaian Ikon distillery would produce 144,000 litres of beer per annum along with 163,000 litres of gin and vodka and 80,000 litres (or 400 barrels) of whisky.

When operational it would employ 14 full time staff.

The cashflow budgets show it would rack up a loss of $1.6m a year for the first three years, make a profit of almost $1m in year four and a profit of $1.78m in its fifth year of operation.

“Two of the industries hardest hit by the pandemic are tourism and hospitality,’ the submission says.

“The Tasmanian Ikon Distillery is a perfect fit in terms of helping both these industries recover along with a providing a significant long-term tourism attraction and manufacturing facility for Burnie.”