Irish food firms target ‘out of home’ market with new sales programme

TEN Irish food companies hope to build sales thanks to a new Enterprise Ireland and Bord Bia programme geared towards the €4.7bn global market for ‘out of home’ products.

The producers of readymade meals, desserts, sushi, bread and sauces have already attended one workshop with Pallas Foods, which employs 500 people in Ireland. Pallas was acquired by Sysco Corporation Houston, Texas, USA, which has a team of 50,000 employees and revenues of $37bn (€27bn) per annum.

The selected companies all source raw materials from Irish farms. Readymade meals producer Country Cooking in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim, hopes that the programme will help its new Boxty Bakers brand gain a foothold in the Irish market.

Boxty Bakers founder and MD, Stephen Hennessy, said: “Pallas Foods is very strong in the Irish and US food markets. We’re hoping that they will help us develop in Ireland. Northern Ireland, Britain and Europe would be great too in time.

“The US seems like a bit of a dream right now, to be honest. We’ll have to learn to crawl and then walk. Running is a long way off. The Boxty Bakers product is just about to go live in Tesco in Connacht. We’re very hopeful this programme will help.”

Enterprise Ireland (EI) and Bord Bia’s Supplier Development Programme involves 10 companies in all. Products include granola from Paddy O’Granola’s in Laois, fresh sushi from Sushi King in Dublin and a range of spices, marinades and meat glazes from Spice O’Life in Dunmanway, Co Cork. The first workshop took place recently in Pallas Foods, Newcastle West, Limerick.

The foodservice market has become increasingly important for Irish food suppliers and offers significant potential for new entrants. A more challenging environment than retail, it is fragmented and extremely diverse.

The six-month series of workshops will involve individual mentoring sessions with Pallas Foods managers and other food industry experts.

Pallas Foods purchasing manager, Eddie Heffernan, said: “Two-thirds of all the products we sell to the Irish foodservice sector are manufactured in Ireland. We are proud to support smaller food producers who can bring new and innovative products to our business.”