Food Companies Achieve Growth in Sales and Win New Business with La Rousse Foods.

 

Participants on Irish Exporters Association’s (IEA) Channel Clusters

Development Programme are Now on the Road to Success

 

The IEA have worked in partnership with La Rousse Foods to create a cluster to

assist Five Irish food processing companies to reach the necessary marketing

standards to achive product listing in the sector . Today ( 10th May ) the IEA

and La Rousse Foods announce that all five companies have successfully

completed the IEA’s Channel Clusters Development Programme, which received

funding support from the EU and was also supported by Bord Bia and

Enterprise Ireland.

 

As a result of participating on the programme, 3 of the 5 companies – Ummera

Smoked Products, A Growing Pleasure and Dromoland Game - have already

achieved product listings with La Rousse Foods, while it is anticipated that

ongoing discussions will result in the other participating companies being

successful in the near future. The twelve-month highly practical programme was

delivered by IEA using specialist consultants . Each company has received

expert business development mentoring over the past 12 months to achieve

listing status with La Rousse Food.

 

Godfrey Lydon of the Irish Exporters Association said at the announcement ;

 

‘’The Programme aims to open doors for early stage Irish food companies,

enabling them to expand sales on the home and in export markets .The

programme has also provided expertise and assistance to the participants to

raise their performance levels in terms of innovation, product quality and service

standards which is vital to achieve product listings in the foodservice sector.’’

 

“Despite the downturn, he further stated , the food and drink sector continues

to employ around 120,000 people directly and indirectly, and programmes such

as this is helping business in the sector to stay competitive and compete .”

 

‘La Rousse Foods saw great potential in the programme and were quick to sign

up in late 2009’, he said. ‘The 5 companies met the La Rousse buyer, Colum

Lanigan Ryan, on a one to one basis and he gave them excellent advice on what

they need to do to get listed with them and grow their businesses’. The IEA

mentor managed the communication throughout the programme.

 

Colum Lanigan Ryan, General Food Manager of La Rousse Foods, commented :

"We found the channel clusters programme a very useful experience, and would

be delighted to take part again, should the opportunity arise. ‘’

 

‘’While we had already been dealing with one of the participating companies

before the programme began, we are now trading with 3 out of the 5 companies

in the cluster. The Channel Clusters programme has well prepared the

companies for doing business with us, which means that we and they can benefit

much more quickly from working together.’’

 

‘’While there's no doubt that Irish food suppliers in general share the passion we

have here at La Rousse Foods, for food of the highest possible quality, the

Channel Clusters programme certainly brought some fresh business thinking to

A Growing Pleasure, Dromoland Game and Ummera Smoked Products, all of

whom are now working with us".

 

 “It was great to see these 5 companies addressing the new business

environment in such a proactive way,” commented Ronan Gillespie who is one

of the IEA programme’s business development mentors. “They’re not waiting for

things to happen, they’re going to make them happen. Our objective was to help

each company, on a one-to-one basis, to identify and exploit business

opportunities here and in export markets. “

 

As part of the programme, the participants exhibited at the Food and Drink Expo

in Birmingham in 2010, gaining valuable leads, learnings and orders worth tens

of thousands of Euros in new business.

 

 

The 5 participants were:

Dromoland Game Sports	Don Walshe
A Growing Pleasure	Pat Clarke
Silver Pail Dairy	Thea Murphy
Ummera Smoked Products	Anthony Creswell
Dawn Farm Foods	Gerry Raftery

 

For further information, contact:

Godfrey Lydon, Irish Exporters Association. Tel: 01 6424170.

This project was made possible through a financial contribution from the European regional Development Fund Ireland Wales (INTERREG 4A) Programme 2007 – 2013. This article reflects the views of the authors only and not those of the Programme Authorities.

 

 ENDS