Banking on a healthy new option
If he couldn’t buy the product he wanted, he’d make it himself
Nüsli, a new food company in the south east, has recruited a Coalition of the Willing to produce healthy and natural yogurt using local ingredients.
The yogurt was developed and launched by Dublin-born businessman Dermot Hanley, who has gone from investment banking to healthy eating.
His company recently took part in Food Works, a training and development programme jointly run by Bord Bia, Enterprise Ireland and Teagasc.
Three varieties of Nüsli yogurt are to be found in the grab and go fridge of most leading Irish retailers.
They are a combination of award winning yogurt, whole-grains, pure pressed apple juice, fruits, almonds and hazelnuts.
Food Works was set up in 2012 to identify and nurture export-orientated entrepreneurs who want to be part of Ireland’s growing food and drink industry.
Through a series of workshops and one to one mentoring, successful participants are given a range of practical business supports.
Consumer market research, business plan development, technical advice, commercial viability testing, fast track access to research and development (R&D) facilities, possible investors and State funding are all covered.
Food Works 2014 has just concluded and registration for 2015 is now open. Over the past two years, following a competitive process attracting in excess of 150 applications, a total of 43 start-ups from dairy, snacks, meat, seafood and beverages participated.
Dairy free ice-cream, biodegradable chewing gum, premium Irish vodka and sustainable seafood butter are among the new and soon-to-be launched innovative food and drink products developed by Irish entrepreneurs participating in Food Works.
Dermot Hanley spent over 20 years as an investment banker in Toronto and New York. But for most of that time, he dreamed of starting a cheese farm back in Ireland. He visited all the big cheese producing regions in France during a one year family sabbatical in 2002.
Six years later, Dermot was back in Ireland and still working in corporate finance but he had taken a step nearer his first love of food via a post graduate course in University College Cork.
He longed for the simple life back in France – and particularly the Bircher Muesli that both fuelled him and delighted him on the ski slopes of the Alps.
And then and there, a big decision was made. If he couldn’t buy the product he wanted — he’d have to make it himself.
Dermot’s promised himself there would be nothing artificial in Nüsli — no fake flavours, artificial colours or preservatives – just the freshest, lightest taste and the purest of pure goodness.
He surrounded himself with a team of brilliant food scientists, who could turn a dream into a reality. Next, he looked to selecting the best possible ingredients, testing every possible grain combination and process to make sure it was the best texture, the best tasting and the most nutritious.
“We recruited a Coalition of the Willing, making it our business to recruit the best development partners, and to source the purest freshest ingredients from producers we know and trust, and who have the same understanding of excellence as us.”
Nüsli is made at Killowen Farm, near Enniscorthy, Co Wexford. The Dunne family has been making the highest quality farmhouse yoghurt for over ten years.
The apple juice blend for Nüsli is grown on Ballycross Apple Farm — just down the road from Killowen.
Rolled whole-wheat is sourced from Kells Wholemeal, operating in Bennettsbridge, Co Kilkenny, a family company with a real hands-on ethos.
Flahavan’s, one of Ireland’s oldest private Irish family-run food businesses from Kilmacthomas, Co Waterford, provide the oats.
Others in ‘The Coalition of the Willing’ include Bord Bia, Enterprise Ireland and Teagasc (through the Food Works Programme), UCC, the UCD Smurfit Business School and the National College of Art and Design.
“With that much brain power behind us, it’s little wonder we’ve been so successful in gaining a strong foothold in the Irish food market. Honourable mention must also go to our designers, Neworld Associates, as well as entrepreneurs, friends, retailers and students who gave their time so freely,” says the company, which now hopes to target the export market.
