Farmer’s gains are in the bag after switch to crisp-making

A Tipperary farmer looking for diversification ideas has cornered 2% of the Irish market and built up an estimated €1.5m in sales just two years after embarking on a hand-made crisp enterprise using his own potatoes, writes Trish Dromey

NEW crisp on the shelf, O’Donnell’s has captured a 2% share of the Irish market and is expected to achieve sales of €1.5 million this year.

This is quite an achievement for company founder Ed O’Donnell, who switched from farming to crisp-making two years ago — despite the fact that his plans to build a manufacturing plant on his family farm near Clonmel were swept away in the tide of recession.