Dee’s food producer gets healthy boost with exports set to hit 40%

By Joe Dermody

Thursday, February 02, 2012

Health food producer Dee’s Eat Well, Be Happy is set to double the size of its business, with exports growing to 40% of total sales by the end of 2012.

The Cork-based company will soon add Portuguese supermarkets to its existing outlets in Ireland and Britain.

Founder Dee Collins said: "These are exciting times for us. We have just sent samples to the El Corte Ingles and Pingo Doce supermarket chains. We are working with distributor Casa Bio in Portugal.

"We have also just launched three new meal products with our UK distributors, Marigold Healthfoods, who have 500 stores in a 60km radius of London. Our main account in London is the Wholefoods Market, a chain of stores which is a bit like the Harrods of health food."

The range of vegetarian burgers and other meat-free products have enjoyed solid sales here in 2011. The range has also enjoyed strong sales in January, which Collins puts down to consumers’ New Year health kick.

"People go back to healthy eating in January after the excesses of Christmas. We ran promotions in Superquinn, Tesco and other stores, which went very well for us," Ms Collins said. "We are really giving the range a push in Ireland this year, and we hope to double our sales by the end of the year. We also hope that exports will make up 40% of our busi-ness by the end of 2012.

"We have to look at the home and other markets as separate consumers, which means a different approach. At the start, we weren’t even filling a pallet going to the UK, but now we are. You have to build up your accounts in the UK, and thankfully we have seen that investment work out for us."

For St Patrick’s weekend, the range will feature at Veg Fest in Brighton, where 6,000 vegetarians will be gathered. Ms Collins hopes she gets a promotional lift similar to a recent London trade market, when actor Jude Law enjoyed one of her veggie burgers.

Popular with vegetarians and coeliacs, Ms Collins says the range sells itself on its core strengths of flavour and healthiness rather than being geared towards a niche clientele. For instance, she herself is not a vegetarian.

"I am not a vegetarian, but you don’t have to be a vegetarian to enjoy healthy food," she said.

Having launched her range to students in 2007, Ms Collins moved on to enjoy success at farmers’ markets. In 2010, she was a winner on Dragons’ Den. The following year, she was a finalist in the 2011 Small Firms Association awards. Her Thai butternut squash and lentil product won a gold star at the 2011 Taste awards.

Along the way, she has learned invaluable lessons.

"I changed from the original name of Veg-E-Que. My designer said it was like a scientific formula. I also wasted about a year struggling with recipes and packages.

"Now I’m looking at an innovative new product following a request from a client in England, but that’s top secret, so I don’t want to say any more about that for now."

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, February 02, 2012