Tayto plant up for sale

THE home of the Tayto crisp is up for sale for €10 million. The company, which has been hit by falling crisp sales, has decided to sell off its main manufacturing Coolock plant on Dublin’s northside, its principal base since 1968.

Manufacturing of the snack crisp range is being switched to another Irish location and will be handled in the future by Largo Foods.

The Tayto crisp, and especially the “plain” cheese and onion flavour, is among the country’s longest-established and strongest retail brands. A recent survey by Checkout magazine rated it the sixth most recognised brand in Ireland in their top 100 survey.

The company was founded in Dublin in 1954, and was bought out by Cantrell & Cochrane in 1999. Tayto munches its way through over 22,000 tons of Irish potatoes each year.

Now, in the face of market competition and declining sales, it has put its 3.3 acre Malahide Road, Coolock, Dublin 17 site up for sale by tender with Mark Hennessy of Hamilton Osborne King, who recalls: “You’d get the smell of crisps as you passed by, swiftly followed by the smell of paint from the Dulux plant.”

HOK expects it to make €10m and says it has significant redevelopment potential given its high profile location.