“NUTRITIOUS FOOD prepared in Ireland” has long been used in the marketing of Cully & Sully products, but now the Cork-based soup and pie-maker is shifting at least some of its manufacturing to the UK.

Colum O’Sullivan, aka Sully, confirmed to me this week that its soups are being manufactured in Britain at a facility owned by US-based Hain Celestial Group, which acquired the Irish food company earlier this year. The soups were being produced here by Glanbia.

Cully & Sully is also in discussions with Country Crest about its pies and hotpots, although O’Sullivan stressed that no final decision has yet been made on this.

“It makes sense for us to use that ,” Sully said. “But the team will continue to be based here and we’ll be using the same recipes. We are using quite a lot of Irish ingredients. The important thing is that the quality doesn’t change.”

Moving manufacturing abroad means it will have to give up using the “Love Irish” tag on its soups.

Hain is rumoured to have paid about €11 million for Cully & Sully, including a two-year earn out for the founders – Sully and Cullen Allen (aka Cully).

Sully said it was also gearing up to manufacture its soups in the US for the American market. Business is “going well” in a “very tough market”, he said. “We just keep doing what we’re doing.”