Participating in Lidl’s Kickstart supplier development programme is helping restaurateur Pádraic Óg Gallagher serve up his famous Irish cuisine in homes all around the country.
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 nationwide.
It allows them to showcase their products to consumers, and gain valuable experience 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 claim a space on Lidl 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 the businesses with digital marketing skills and online advertising vouchers.
Gallagher opened The Boxty House in 1989, serving up native Irish dishes such as Boxty House dumplings with braised beef, slow cooked Irish lamb, and Dublin’s famous coddle.
Over the past year, lockdowns gave Gallagher an opportunity to pursue a new business recipe – fresh ready meals for sale on supermarket shelves.
“It’s something I had long thought of doing but never had the time before. But for the last 18 months we’ve been closed and have had the time to reinvent ourselves,” says Gallagher.
Though he has continued to provide food deliveries from its cloud kitchen in Tallaght, the opportunity to sell into retail was one he was ready to seize.
Lidl’s Kickstart programme was the perfect place to start. It gives producers a chance to launch a product in a supermarket backed by support and guidance from Lidl buyers, Bord Bia and Facebook’s digital marketing experts.
For Gallagher, it was a winning recipe. “Though we have produced foods and sauces for other companies, the move to retail food is very different to what we are used to,” he explains.
“We wanted to see if there was a market for a branded product from The Boxty House, not just in Ireland but internationally, and Lidl has a massive international profile.”
What we are producing is Irish comfort food, in the comfort of your own home
Having starred in numerous European TV shows and magazine features, so does The Boxty House, he points out.
The Boxty House ready meals are the same as those found on its restaurant menu and, like them, are cooked from scratch, starting with home-made stock and ingredients such as stout brewed in its very own microbrewery.
Food is something Gallagher, as a chef, knows well but Kickstart helped with the retail side. For example, its team of experienced buyers helped save him time and money thanks to the advice they gave him on sustainable packaging and information about consumer trends, he says. He is currently working on a range of plant-based products too.
“This has been a huge learning curve for us, so it was great to be able to get that advice,” says Gallagher.
The information he learned at the Facebook webinars are helping to ensure he knows exactly how to engage with consumers online, whetting their appetite for his popular dishes.
Small business owners are learning to embrace the benefits that digital and social media channels can play in driving sales
“It was quite amazing to learn how Facebook has changed the advertising world. The number of people who discover new brands on Facebook, and continue to purchase, is incredible,” he says.
Gallagher’s pivot to retail is one very many businesses have experienced this year.
“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, Facebook is helping to equip them with the know-how to compete in what is a rapidly changing marketplace.
“With 3.4 billion 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.”
It’s a challenge Gallagher is undertaking with relish - and confidence.
“What we are producing is Irish comfort food, in the comfort of your own home,” he explains. “I’m really pleased to be launching it and really pleased to be working with Lidl.”
