Oishii
Given that his parents have a snack
food business, The Fibre Food
Company, it was probably always
likely George Ardagh would gravitate towards the same sector. He
has, but he took a few detours along
the way. Over the years he has sold
remote control devices for gates,
run an online wedding shop and,
most recently, launched a poncho
wholesale business.
A passion for donuts however has
given him his most successful
venture yet. “I just love donuts,”
says Ardagh. “I have some family in
Canada and whenever I went there
the first thing I would do is head for
the donut shop.” In 2012 he decided
to take the love affair a step further
and see if there was a business in it ,
travelling to the US to undertake a
tour of donut shops. While there he
bought US-style donut equipment,
had it shipped over, and set about
perfecting recipes. The next step
was to rent a food grade unit at a
subsidised price at SPADE, an
incubation centre for food businesses in central Dublin.
Empire Donuts began trading in
February 2013 and his success has
been anything but half baked:
“We’re flying,” says Ardagh, who
employs four people, has secured a
listing with Tesco and supplies to
Rail Gourmet, the international
railway catering supplier.
“In the beginning I was doing the
cooking, the deliveries, making
sales and doing accounts and even
now I have help I’m still working
seven days a week,” says Ardagh.
The work is paying off however.
“It’s all about the volume. We
needed to get the numbers up to
benefit from economies of scale
and we’re starting to do that. We
have export potential and are in a
really good place now.”
FOODFOCUS
Ciara Troy
EmpireDonuts
FOODFOCUS
George Ardagh
Ciara Troy’s business was born in
2006 of a simple love of sushi.
Starting out on a market stall in
Greystones, Co Wicklow, Oishii has
since grown into a business that
employs 20 people.
Oishii means delicious in Japanese and is a word she learned on a
student trip to the Land of the Rising
Sun that left her with a passion for
fresh sushi. Unable to find it back
home, she began making her own
and selling it at farmers markets.
Demand grew quickly, but she
was so busy making and selling it
that she had little time to think
strategically about the business. It
was only a chance meeting with
someone from her local enterprise
board that put her on a path to
growth. “I was 18 months in before I
realised there were supports out
there for food start ups like mine,”
she says.
Access to mentoring and a capital
grant enabled her to buy her first
proper piece of equipment – prior to
that she had to do everything by
hand – and the business began to
scale up rapidly.
Today it sells into supermarkets
across Ireland and recently expanded with the launch of Oishii Noodles,
which are low in fat and sugar and
high in protein.
Other innovations include the
launch of a sushi catering service
and sushi-making team building
events which have proved a hit
recipe with corporate clients – “they
get their Oishii aprons and head
bands and it’s a really fun event,”
said Troy.
www.enterprise-ireland.com
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