November 05, 2021
Meet the makers
Wholesome by name, wholesome by nature
Long before sustainability was an integral part of business strategy and reformulation efforts focused on helping consumers to live healthier lives, Folláin’s range of traditional preserves was bringing wholesome jams and marmalades to households nationwide. Maev Martin talks to general manager JOHN DALY and company director MÍCHEÁL Ó LIONÁIRD about increasing market share, the pandemic dividend, and new export and
category opportunities
The word ‘wholesome’ is defined as ‘conducive to or suggestive of good health and physical well-being,’ so
its Irish equivalent, ‘folláin,’ is a particularly apt name for one of Love Irish Food’s founding companies. The
manufacturer won no less than nine accolades at this year’s Blas na hÉireann awards, for both its Folláin and private label products, and
also recently received the prestigious Origin Green Gold membership. A love of cooking and a shared passion for preserving traditions is at the heart of the success that Folláin has enjoyed since the product was first brought to
market in 1983.
Mícheál Ó Lionáird’s mother Máirín Uí Lionáird met Eithne Ui Shiadhail while they were working in the honey business in the
early 1980s, and they decided to join forces to make a traditional preserve. “Folláin was born using a 100-year-old grapefruit marmalade
recipe that had been passed down through the generations,” says Mícheál. “Using Eithne’s grandmother’s recipe, my mother and Eithne whipped up their first batch of grapefruit marmalade in my father Peadar Ó Lionáird and Máirín Uí Lionáird’s family factory in
Cuil Aodha in west Cork.”
After a period of hand preparing the fruit and cooking the jams and marmalades, wordspread quickly about their delicious jams and
marmalades and Superquinn came calling, ordering 100 cases of jams and marmalades to sell in their shops. A few years after that
initial success, and to keep up with the demand for their growing range of preserves and chutneys, Folláin moved to a larger,
purpose-built kitchen in Baile Mhic Íre in Macroom, and in 1995 they won their first Great Taste Award for Folláin Strawberry Jam– and they’ve kept on winning ever since!
After nearly 20 years as a family-managedbusiness, John Daly was appointed as general manager of Folláin in January 2020. The
company’s original founder, Máirín Uí Lionáird retired in 2020, while her husband Peadar is still managing director of the
business. Mícheál sister Mairead is also involved in the company, managing its
sustainability strategy, as well as occupational health and safety.
“We also have a strong management team of professionals in the sales and marketing, supply chain, production, technical and quality control
departments,” says John Daly. “This ensures good continuity in the business. I’m a food scientist and have held numerous production and factory manager roles with the Kerry Group and Manor Farm, as well as with family businesses in the Cork area, so it is great to continue working with a strong family-run business that has good brand values.”
Sustainability and seasonality
Sustainability has been an integral part of the business since day one and as far back as 2004 Folláin gave away a free packet of seeds
with each jar. “This was a big success and by the promotion’s end we had given away over 100,000 seeds for herbs such as basil, chives,parsley and thyme,” says Mícheál. In addition, the company’s commitment to wholesome, healthier food led to the introduction of a No Added Sugar range in 2007 which, Mícheál claims, is “just as sweet as the traditional taste our customers come to expect. Today we have
a Nothing but Fruit range of jams and a No Added Sugar range of relishes, to which we’re constantly adding new recipes.”
In 2009, Folláin planted over 5,000 trees and gave one community in Ireland the chance to win 200
native trees for their local area. “This was a small step towards our goal of creating a
greener and more wholesome environment,” he says. “Folláin is wholesome by name and to us that means good food. In the almost 40 years that we have been in business, that commitment is just getting stronger. A wholesome, more sustainable future is what we want to assure and making good food in a sustainable way is how we intend to do it.”
Market share
The conserves market is pretty static, but Folláin has managed to build its share in this market and win strong retailer support for its
products on shelf. “The main catalyst for success has been our Nothing but Fruit range or No Added Sugar range,” says Mícheál. “It has been on the market for approximately 10 years, but has seen a significant uplift in sales over the last five years, and an even greater
increase in the last two years. This is a sustainable product in every way – apart from the contents, it comes in a bespoke glass jarwhich is intended for reuse and we encourage customers to use the jar when finished with it and not just put it in the recycling bin.
Retailers have been very supportive of us and have been enthused by our product’s health credentials and by our innovative and sustainable packaging. My mother was keen to ensure that the new packaging reflected the quality of the product within the jar. We therefore hope that it encourages reuse as it is something that consumers would be reluctant to throw away.”
The Folláin brand is best known to consumers as a marmalade and jam, but the company has been producing relishes and chutneys for over 15 years, although these have been available predominantly in the foodservice sector. “Our relishes were launched nationwide last year,” says John. In
the Checkout Top 100 Brands 2021, Folláin significantly increased its share of the jams market, and is now the number-two brand. “We want to continue to innovate and adapt home recipes to scaled industrial production and market our product across different categories,” he says. “A key part of our strategy is to leverage our wholesome, natural ingredients and good taste credentials to meet customer expectations with all new
products we produce.
“We have extended our range from jams to fruit fillings where consumers use our fruit when baking or as breakfast toppers, so we
are looking to bring our culinary credentials to any other category that utilises our core competency, which is making good food. We are looking at a number of prepared consumer food categories to see where we can move into next. We are already in jams and relishes, so we are looking at using our learnings from foodservice to see if we can apply that to other prepared consumer food products. There is also a strong export market for our product. We have seen that in the US, Canada and Germany over the past year and we would like to extend our reach to other export markets.” Folláin recently redeveloped its website and is offering an online gifting option for its customers just in time for the busy lead intoChristmas 2021. “While this option has been up and running for a couple of months, we haven’t had a major launch yet, but we are hoping to officially launch it soon,” he says.
Local employer Folláin’s impact as a local employer has been significant. The company current employs 48
people and is planning to increase that number over the next few months. “We are in the
process of diversification at the moment,” says John. “We expanded our workforce by eight people over the last 18 to 24 months as there was strong demand for our products during the pandemic. Our food range was viewed as being a healthy product and a lot of people
switched to healthier eating during the pandemic and we benefitted from that trend.
In addition, most people were having breakfast at home during the pandemic and when they are doing that they are having jam on toast and they choose our product for that.” Most of Folláin’s workers are from the local area and some have been employed by the company for between 10 and 15 years. “We have low staff turnover and a dedicated staff and that is what helped us to move from being a small cottage industry to being the size we
are now,” says Mícheál. “It is also sustainable for the community to have a dependable employer in the area.”
The company decided to open a 3,800 square foot purpose-built facility in 2016. “We built it bigger than our
needs at the time, which was a good call, and since then there has been significant investmentin renewable energy and technology to make
the operation as sustainable and energy efficient as possible. Also, a lot of automationand other efficiencies have been introduced to
the production process.”
Outlook 2022
As we look to 2022, where do John and Mícheál see the Irish economy heading? “Next year will be a challenging one,” says John.
“There are a lot of unknowns as we navigate this stage in the pandemic. Shopping behaviour has changed dramatically, but one
positive on the horizon is that Irish consumers are embracing local and Irish brands, so we
hope that will continue.”
Like all business owners, they are concerned about energy, insurance and materials costs, as well as the availability of labour over the coming months. “However, we believe that we have the correct package of products and thatwe are agile and flexible enough to react to what the market needs,” says Mícheál. “Global supply chain issues could lead to foodprice increases, so we will need to work
closely with our customers to ensure that we have the right offering for the market.”
As a brand that has emerged from local tonational availability, what message do they have for other local food producers? “The
most important thing for companies similar tous is to make sure that their offering is relevant to the market when it is launched,” he says. “They must also keep costs in check, be as sustainable and efficient as possible, and be lean in all processes.”
New product development
For Folláin, it is all about extending its reach into new grocery retail categories and Mícheál says that the company will be using its strong
presence in the foodservice sector to trial and rollout innovations in the retail channel. “We use our foodservice market to grow our stable of products and some of our nonjam products are available through foodservice,” he says. “We have a lot of new and interesting flavours coming through in the foodservice sector, such as sauces and savoury products. Apart from the changes to the retail landscape, the eating out market has also changed significantly, so we have used the last 18 months to develop new flavours in world cuisine. Those sauces are now being rolled out in foodservice, and if they are successful in that sector, we would be looking to make some of them available in the retail channel.”
AS A FOUNDING MEMBER of Love Irish Food and given that the company currently has a seat on the board of the organisation,
what message does Folláin have for Irish food producers? “Love Irish Food’s main function is to help Irish shoppers make
informed choices in the retail sector and it is now more important than ever to keep purchases local,” says John. “We have received mentoring from Love Irish Food and they have been involved in promotional activity to raise awareness of our brand and our products. I would advise other food producers to join the organisation because I feel that Love Irish Food has a key role to play in the Irish retail sector over the coming years.”
+
April 01, 2021
Meet the makers
Meet The Makers: Sean Murphy, Managing Director, East Coast Bakehouse
Founded in 2015 by Alison Cowzer and Michael Carey, East Coast Bakehouse manufactures biscuits for the domestic and export markets from its factory in Drogheda, Co Louth. Maev Martin talks to managing director Sean Murphy about the Brexit opportunity, adding value to the category, and responding to the latest trends.
Built for scale from day one, the East Coast Bakehouse factory features one of the largest biscuit ovens and the longest single production line in Europe, which runs to 400 metres. The company manufactures and packs 10,000 packets of biscuits per hour. According to Murphy, East Coast Bakehouse has the scale to supply a significant proportion of the demand for biscuits in Ireland.
“We have a large-scale production facility with the capacity to produce approximately 90,000 biscuits per hour,” he says.
“To put that in context, on a 24-7 operation, every week we could produce more than three biscuits for every person in Ireland. While we are a scale producer, we have developed a unique capability to be dynamic and responsive to meet our customers’ demands. We are proud of our in- house product development capability that has created high quality product solutions across a wide range of biscuit and snack platforms. These products can then be quickly transformed to production on our large-scale plant to deliver cost effective solutions to the market.”
The biscuit market in Ireland is over 95% imported and a proportion of those biscuits are coming from the UK. Now, post-Brexit, is there is a big opportunity for Irish biscuit producers to ramp up their production capacity?
“Certainly, it is an advantage for retailers to source locally as it removes the challenges associated with Brexit and will enable them to operate with lower stock-holding,” says Murphy. “From our perspective, we are ready to meet the local demand.”
Diverse Export Strategy
When East Coast Bakehouse was first established, the business model was export-driven, with the Irish market being just a component of the operation, and the business plan was initially built on a strategy of selling 80% of East Coast Bakehouse’s production to the UK market.
“We commissioned our production line around the same date as the original Brexit referendum vote, so from that point it was clear to us that we needed to diversify our customer and geographic base,” he says. “That led to an immediate pivot, driving stronger focus on the
Irish market, Europe and other international markets. Today, we produce private label products for three of the major retailers in Ireland and our brand is available in the leading retailers in the country. In addition, our biscuits are exported to 26 countries.”
Driving Category Growth
The company has its own brand called East Coast Bakehouse, which includes a cookies range and granola options. Using the best of Irish ingredients, the company’s mantra is ‘Baking Better Biscuits,’ and this is also reflected in other revenue streams that include own label for retailers and contract manufacturing for other leading manufacturers.
When it comes to the segments that are driving overall category growth, Murphy says that it is being driven primarily by indulgent, better for you and functional biscuits, as consumers seek either a permissible treat or a healthier regular snack.
East Coast Bakehouse has responded to these trends with a range of indulgent product offerings, including fully enrobed in chocolate products, and by developing several better for you or healthier options, including biscuits that feature zero and reduced sugar, provide immune support, are high protein, and support consumers who are embarking on a Keto diet.
Vegan is a hot trend in every grocery retail category and East Coast Bakehouse is looking to capitalise on the increasing popularity of vegan biscuit products. “Last month we launched a vegan range under the East Coast Bakehouse brand,” says Murphy.
“The launch includes three excellent products that are receiving very positive feedback from consumers. We continually monitor emerging trends and develop products that meet the needs of many of the core trends. It is important to us that when we develop products to meet these trends that the product delivers a high quality experience and does not require the consumer to make a compromise, as biscuits should be an enjoyable eat.”
Selling In A Pandemic
Like other businesses around the country, East Coast Bakehouse has made several investments to ensure that its employees are operating in a safe working environment and has taken steps to reduce the opportunity for Covid-19 transmission.
“From a business growth perspective, we initially found it more challenging to engage with buyers as their work environment has been disrupted, and we found that customers were more cautious and slower to commit to new products or new suppliers,” he says.
“However, we have seen that situation improve significantly since mid-summer last year and we now have strong engagement with buyers who are looking to reinvigorate their category growth.”
Regarding the impact on sales, Murphy says that in the early days of the pandemic consumers adopted a pantry load approach as they secured themselves for the first lock-down. “This provided us with a short-term boost in sales,” he says.
“However, as households began to embrace the lockdown periods and engaged in home baking, there was a slowdown in biscuit consumption. Those trends stabilised as people adapted to the Covid-19 world and we are now experiencing a more natural, organic growth trend.”
Aggressive Growth Agenda
According to Murphy, East Coast Bakehouse has “an aggressive growth agenda” and launching new products is a critical element of delivering the growth. “In the last few months, we have introduced 14 new products, either under our own brand or producing for our partners,” he says. “We anticipate a similar rate of expansion over the rest of the year.
The business is a scale investment and, as such, significant funding has been required to bring the business up to a breakeven point that will be achieved in the next few months, which then allows us to refocus on the next wave of expansion.”
Most of East Coast Bakehouse’s 43 full-time employees live in Drogheda, Dundalk and the surrounding areas. “We plan to expand our employee numbers to approximately 70 by the end of the year as we expand production capacity,” he says. As well as employing locally, they try, where possible, to use Irish ingredients, due to both their high quality and ease of availability.
“We are continually looking to source locally and have recently moved some of our packaging requirements to an Irish supplier,” says Murphy.
One of the founding members of the Origin Green programme, East Coast Bakehouse operates specific programmes that are focused on reducing waste, energy consumption, and total packaging, as well as improving the recyclability of its packaging. “Current initiatives include moving all of our plastic trays to fully recyclable plastic and exploring some solar energy solutions for the Bakehouse,” he says.
+
