Ireland has given the world some great food brands, from Guinness and Baileys to Kerrygold. But the vast majority of food businesses here are mom and pop shops, not great big multinationals with enormous marketing budgets. So how can small family businesses build big brands?
It’s something Cork man Conor Hyde is deeply concerned with, both through his business, Bullseye Food Marketing, and as founder of Hyde Irish Whiskey, the whiskey bonding business he set up in 2014 which today exports to 65 countries.
Hyde also delivers Food Starter, a business development programme run by the Local Enterprise Offices. A huge part of his focus there is teaching food and drink start-ups how to compete with global brands at home and abroad.
“It’s about teaching them the practices and tactics the big boys use,” says Hyde.
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That includes learning about gap analysis, market research and how to properly appraise competitors, as well as getting to grips properly with pricing.
Such support is needed because, despite Ireland’s “food island” brand, the rate of attrition of food businesses here is worryingly high.
It’s because food and drink is typically a high-volume, low-margin business. “If you don’t get efficient in your manufacturing fast you run out of cash, to be blunt about it,” says Hyde.
Too few set themselves up for success from the start, failing to learn about costings for profit, while at the same time ensuring they make a product at a price that is affordable for the consumer.
“Branding is another area they fall down in,” says Hyde. “They tend to have very poor packaging and presentation on shelf.”
Distribution, too, is a common pitfall: “They don’t get enough product on enough shelves. Again, if you don’t have enough sales, you won’t have enough repeat sales, and you run out of cash.”
