Clonakilty Food Company's Colette Twomey on instilling the right culture in your company

West Cork company is as synonymous with Irish food as Kerrygold or Barry's Tea

Colette Twomey, managing director of Clonakilty Food Company speaking at a Cork Chamber Business Breakfast, which took place at the Clayton Hotel, Cork. Picture: David Creedon

Colette Twomey, managing director of Clonakilty Food Company, was the speaker at this month's Cork Chamber Business Breakfast, where she detailed the history of one of Ireland's most recognisable food brands.

Speaking to business leaders, she detailed the history of the company, which dates back to the 1800s, and has since grown into an international brand available in outlets across the world, including the UK, Europe and Australia.

In 1976, Edward Twomey and his wife Colette took over a butcher shop in Clonakilty and made black pudding, which they began distributing around Cork and Munster due to its popularity. 

In the 1980s, they added other products such as sausages and white pudding. Speaking at the event in the Clayton Hotel on Cork's Lapp's Quay, Ms Twomey said they promoted the products at food events and roadshows, which expanded its reach.

In the 1990s, to meet demand from a growing number of supermarkets, they opened a facility in Little Island outside Cork City. Colette continued to run the company after Eddie died in 2005, and in 2017 she realised a long dream of bringing production back to Clonakilty, developing a purpose-built facility in the town.

"You make a decision and you go for it," she said. "Luck is when opportunity meets gut instinct. There are opportunities left, right, and centre. You can choose to ignore them, but if your gut tells you they're right, then lo and behold, you get lucky."

The company's drive has moved what was generally viewed as a niche product into a mainstay of Irish cuisine, moving off the breakfast plate into salads, burgers, lasagnes and a pizza topping. Clonakilty is arguably as synonymous with Irish food production as Kerrygold or Barry's Tea.

She said in her time running the company, she tried to instil the right culture. "Culture isn't something that you write down or you put on top of the list of a strategy meeting or plan, or anything like that. 

"It is something that you live day in, day out. I could see the Japanese people, there isn't a sweet paper on the street, there isn't a paper cup. And there isn't a person taping you on the shoulder saying: 'Pick that up, or don't throw it'. It is just their culture. 

"You have to live your culture in the company. It can be negative, but if you aim at having a positive culture, it will stand to you, and it will filter down through all the teams. You can overemphasise the importance of it."

Taking questions from the audience, and asked about her approach in crises such as Brexit, covid, the war in Ukraine and other challenges, Ms Twomey said her calm approach served the company well.

"Everyone was saying when Brexit was on the cards that you have to do this, you have to do that. You have to put your staff through lectures and talks. I was saying 'hold on' because everyone was second-guessing everything, so we waited until we knew what was happening. 

"But it was a challenge. It was a challenge with deliveries, with paperwork. Because black and white pudding would sit longer than sausages so it was a challenge with deliveries."

Ms Twomey said the covid pandemic was a busy period for the company, with people spending more time at home and eating more.

However, the pork crisis in 2008 was one of the greatest challenges when a global recall of products took place following a food contamination scare. 

"The pork crisis was the worst day of work I ever did. Having to tell staff that everything was being pulled off the market. We didn't know if it was one day, two days, a week or a month. The insecurity of that was frightening."