Creative chef among local food producers to sell €1m in Lidl
Darren O'Connor of Cocoa Bean Chocolates.
Participating in Lidl’s Kickstart supplier development programme is helping Darren O’Connor of Cocoa Bean Chocolates to prepare for the sweet taste of business success.
The programme is run in conjunction with Bord Bia and gives small Irish food and drink suppliers the chance to promote their products and grow their business through Lidl stores across the country.
Successful suppliers can secure a listing in the event, which is held twice a year, gaining invaluable experience of supplying to a major international retailer.
As part of the programme, which last year saw more than €1 million worth of Irish products from over 60 producers on Lidl’s shelves, participants also benefit from a series of tailored workshops.
These are designed to give them the tools they need for a successful product launch.
As part of this Facebook, a partner in the programme, is hosting a series of webinars providing participants with digital marketing skills and free online advertising vouchers, to help them develop online customer engagement and grow sales.
For Darren O’Connor, the Facebook seminars are a valuable support at an important time for his business.
He first started out making chocolates commercially in 2015, under the brand Mayan Magic.
Like many Irish youngsters, he had grown up viewing chocolate “as a commodity,” he says. “That was until I discovered what chocolate could be. My eyes were opened to the world of chocolate when I discovered that, just as there are different varieties of grapes that go into wine, there are different varieties of cocoa beans that can go into chocolate.” Real chocolate is something not just to be consumed, but to be “savoured and experienced”, he points out.
As someone who always enjoyed cooking for friends and family, when his father-in-law asked if he could develop a line of plant-based chocolate for his health food store in Ennis, O’Connor quickly got to work perfecting his recipes.
Encouraged by sales in his father-in-law’s shop, he began to reach out to cafes and health food stores further afield, converting his garage into a HSE-approved commercial kitchen. By 2020 he was selling products right across the island of Ireland but knew he had taken the business as far as he could go as a one-man-band.
“I was at a point where I had reached my full capacity,” he explains. He began seeking out a chocolate maker with whom to join forces, which led him to Colm Healy of Skelligs Chocolate in Kerry, someone who shares his love of premium chocolate and his respect for the environment.
“Colm is the same as me, he cares about the planet — not least because it’s the only planet in the universe with chocolate on it,” he points out.
Together they launched Cocoa Bean Chocolate earlier this year, a sustainably sourced, and plant-based, range infused with ingredients such as Wild Mint, Seville Orange, and Sicilian Lemon.
Teaming up with Skelligs Chocolate has given O’Connor the opportunity to scale Cocoa Bean Chocolates for growth. As part of the Kickstart programme, he has already taken an order of 26,000 bars of chocolate from Lidl.
The Facebook seminars are giving him new digital skills to help him capitalise on the opportunity and to grow sales both at home and abroad.
“The Facebook seminars teach you how best to engage with your audience and the importance of creating engaging, shareable content that captures attention in half of a second, to ‘stop the scroll’, he explains.
Facebook staff were delighted to be involved.
“It’s been a tough year for small businesses and some retailers in Ireland. Like Lidl Ireland, we want to help small Irish food and drink suppliers on their road to recovery,” explains Katy Clark, head of Industry, Retail and Ecommerce at Facebook Ireland and UK.
“Small business owners in Ireland are learning to embrace the benefits that digital and social media channels can play in driving sales. However, for some small business owners, the idea of pivoting to online retail can seem daunting.”
By offering suppliers in the Kickstart programme both advertising credits and free digital skills training, it is helping to equip them with the know-how to compete in what is a rapidly changing marketplace.
“With 3.4bn people globally using our platforms each month, three in four online shopping journeys include at least one visit to a Facebook App. Digital is now the primary way that grocery shoppers discover brands and products,” she adds.
“Our training focuses on core social media marketing skills. From learning how our platforms can reach shoppers in Ireland and abroad and the latest industry shopping trends to business owners creating an online presence and activating their own campaigns, business owners learn how to create and share easily curated content and use our free tools to engage, educate and excite people about their brand and products.”
The traditional path to purchase has changed. “Consumers can be made aware of a product or service online, and purchase it within a matter of seconds, without necessarily searching for a known product or brand,” points out Clark.
“Through our training Lidl Kickstart, suppliers learn how they can use the Facebook family of apps to boost their business by using simple but effective techniques to connect with customers in an ever- more digital world. Learning about the strength of the platform and how best to use it to connect to new audiences can help small business owners maximise sales.”
For Darren O’Connor the opportunity that Kick Start is providing Cocoa Bean Chocolates is enormous. “It’s all about knowing the trends, watching the figures and projecting into the future. To me, the whole Kick Start programme is worth its weight in gold,” he says.
Cocoa Bean chocolates and other small Irish suppliers are available in Lidl stores nationwide. Visit the Lidl Kickstart hub to find out more information on the programme and suppliers www.lidl.ie/kickstart.
