Small Business Q&A: Irene Queally from Pip And Pear

For this week’s Q & A Kehlan talks with Irene Queally from Pip And Pear. The company has just launched nationwide and produces organic baby food. Irene talks about how it grew from home cooking to national sales.    

So Irene, what is Pip and Pear?

Pip and Pear is a new chilled baby food range that is just coming to market this week. We make it here in Ireland and source the best meat and poultry from Ireland as well. It means a lot to us that we’re able to do that with our product. It’s organic and is approved by Bord Bia. We use fish in some of our recipes and that’s approved by Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM). So not only do we want the best organic ingredients, we also want to make sure they come from Ireland so we can support other Irish companies as well.

Where does the story begin?

Well, I suppose I never really thought about what children eat until I started having my own. So when I did have kids my mother-in-law bought me a cookbook and I love food, plus cooking, so it was great. Then I started making recipes and making a lot of batches for my own kids. As a busy mum, I could never find something that could come close to the quality and nutrition of something I could make at home. Freshness was a big thing for me as well. Most baby food you buy from the store has a shelf-life of about 18 months. Our recipes have a shelf-life of 21 days. That means that it is fresh and made to be eaten in a short time, much like a meal you would make at home or keep refrigerated. We also run a restaurant, No 9 Barronstrand Street, in Waterford, so this gave us a good platform to know what parents looked for when trying to give babies and kids the right kind of meal.

Cooking is one thing, but how and why take it to a national platform?

When we started out I was creating it for friends and as part of the restaurant offering to customers. Then we won the baby food category at the Blás na hÉireann awards and it made my thoughts more concrete. After we won the award, I thought that now was the right time to take the award and build on it. So I started to look into how we could take it to the next level and make it a success. From there we met up with supermarkets and talked about what we needed to do to get on their shelves, and it quickly moved from there.

What’s next for Pip and Pear?

We launched in Aldi last Thursday and we’ll be launching in SuperValu stores from this week. We want to become a trusted brand among the sector and among parents as well. We’ll have to make this work here in Ireland before our thoughts move overseas. However, exporting is definitely on the cards within the next couple of years and we will be looking to increase our range of products. Right now we’re focusing on the under 12 months age bracket, but we are planning to drive on with foods for children aged over one year. The quality of the product is really good and that, above all else, is what will ensure success for us.

For more information see www.pipandpear.eu.