Egg producer picks up top design award and raises funds for cancer

PERSONAL loss has an unlikely link to a prestigious international design award for Cavan-based free-range egg producer Clonarn Clover.

When a packaging designer put Clonarn’s new white, free-range O’Egg in a pink box, owner and managing director Margaret Farrelly instantly thought of her sister Mary, who died of a brain tumour 30 years ago, aged 18.

They contacted Action Breast Cancer (ABC), for whom pink is such an important colour. While Clonarn Clover is a small producer and the proposed donation from sales was unlikely to be huge, ABC was delighted to partner the family. Margaret’s husband Leo also lost his mother and a sister to cancer.

Clonarn offered to promote ABC by using its pink ribbon logo on the O’Egg packaging, which has been selected for display by Icograda Galleria International Design 2011. The design award seems like a fitting tribute to a genuine personal commitment.

Mrs Farrelly said: “We are a fairly small company, so we have the flexibility to do something like this with sincerity. Cancer is something close to all our hearts, like it is to almost every family in Ireland.

“I still find myself thinking of Mary from time to time. I have three daughters and one son. One of my daughters is very like Mary, and particularly reminds me of her. When each of my children came to their 18th birthday, I would think of her especially. It is nice that the new packaging remembers her in a way.”

Dublin-based designer Lorraine Carter of Personal Design came up with the pink box. Shortly after-wards, a marketing guru who saw the packaging suggested they get in touch with ABC.

The product was form-ally launched at this year’s Bloom Festival, where a lot of people commented on the packaging, as well as the contrasting whiteness of the eggs.

Ms Farrelly said: “Many people ask how the eggs are so white and we explain to them that the eggs are naturally white because they are produced by white hens and immediately they are always curious to learn more about the breed and the product.”

Clonarn Clover supplies Musgrave Group with its free-range eggs under SuperValu and Centra. The company also supplies free-range eggs to Spar, Mace, Costcutters, Londis, Fallon & Byrne and Donnybrook Fair in Dublin. It has also recently begun supplying free-range eggs to Tesco Ireland.

Ms Farrelly added: “The Irish egg sector is traditional and has been dominated by brown eggs since the 1940s but we were keen to innovate. Two years ago I hit on the idea of selling white eggs.

“Before World War II, there was a wide variety of hens and eggs in Ireland including white eggs, but they fell out of fashion when battery farmers began to mass-produce brown eggs.

“It took two years to get the project off the ground but last September we got our first batch.”