‘Nothing ever keeps me up at night’: Gourmet Food Parlour owner on expansion and navigating adversity

Very little seems to phase Lorraine Heskin, who talks about expansion, cost analysis and the daunting series of challenges facing the hospitality industry like she is talking about the weather over a leisurely brunch.

The founder and owner of the Gourmet Food Parlour is sitting in the lush surroundings of the Kitchen Bistro, one of three new restaurants she has just opened in Arnotts department store on Henry Street, Dublin.

What keeps her up at night? “Nothing ever keeps me up at night,” she says before the question has even been asked in full. “My sleep is amazing.” Seemingly able to look on the bright side of everything – she even ventures that Covid, which closed her businesses and forced her to furlough staff, was “the best that ever happened to the business” – her confidence and breezy manner are striking.

“I remember going into 2020 and I had just opened two new restaurants in 2019 and invested in a catering facility. I needed a strong year and I needed everything to go my way, but it didn’t.”

Student accommodation: A market plagued by bed shortages, rising rents and 51-week leases

---

An attempt to buy the next election with a giveaway budget would be a gross miscalculation

---

The outlook for interest rate cuts is changing - so should Irish borrowers be worried?

---

Instead, the pandemic “made us fighters”, says Heskin. “It made us stronger. It made us believe in our business more and made us see the consumer support that was there”.

[ EY Entrepreneur of the Year ]

Since then, Gourmet Food Parlour has scrambled to recover lost ground and even expanded the business. For her efforts, Heskin has been nominated as a finalist in the established category of this year’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards.

Heskin’s decision to embark on this venture with Arnotts (a sister store of Brown Thomas) is a vote of confidence of sorts in brick-and-mortar retail. Department stores have experienced something of a comedown after the heady months that followed the economy’s post-Covid reopening and, before that, the orgy of online consumerism the pandemic ushered in.

Provisional Central Statistics Office figures for September suggest the volume of retail sales in department stores has fallen 7.9 per cent in the past year. In the longer term, questions remain about the growing popularity of online shopping, something Brown Thomas and Arnotts have had to focus on over recent years.

Has the death of physical retail been greatly exaggerated then? “One-hundred per cent,” says Heskin. “People like to buy with their eyes, and online shopping is very popular but the footfall here is incredible.”

It was a no-brainer, she says, sipping an artisan coffee in the plush surroundings of her new brasserie. Brand collaborations, particularly with other Irish companies, are an important part of the Gourmet Food Parlour model.

The company recently partnered with Drumshanbo Gunpowder Gin, owned by Pat Rigney and his wife Denise’s Shed Distillery, to roll out a new cocktail across Heskin’s network of restaurants. She’s also cooking up something for Christmas with Tom Keogh of Keogh’s Crisps, another finalist in this year’s Entrepreneur of the Year competition.

[ Gourmet Food Pantry: 'We have always been open to new opportunities' ]

Given Heskin’s priorities, Arnotts immediately seemed like a “a good cultural fit” – specifically, “an Irish cultural fit”, she says. “The appeal is that it’s an iconic department store. It’s in the city centre. It has the footfall, the customer base but I also feel like Gourmet Food Parlour brings a lot to this department store as well in terms of brand identity.”

Heskin began speaking to Arnotts about taking over the restaurants early this year, before opening them in August. “It just arrived as an opportunity,” she says. “I say sometimes, a phone call or an email sometimes changes the direction you’re going in and that’s why you should always listen to every opportunity that comes your way.”

The spaces were already fitted out and just waiting for Heskin’s company to put its own stamp on them. “There was a minimal investment from my own perspective to bring the decor up to standard and to bring my own brand. It was fairly straightforward. I think the most complex part was getting the menus right.”

Tailoring three separate concepts to cover different customer bases was also part of the challenge. “I think Arnotts attracts a mix of everybody,” says Heskin. “This department store has something to offer for every consumer,” from luxury-craving millennials to older shoppers.

Tapas is something that we’ve done for many years and has been very successful for us. We kind of elevate that slightly here

With that in mind, the three restaurants are cut from different cloth. One is a typical Homemade by Gourmet Food Parlour, a concept focused on breakfast, brunch and lunch.

Then there is the Corner Cafe, a new departure for Heskin’s business and a tie-up with another Dublin-based business. “It’s a patisserie,” says Heskin. “We’ve aligned with Bread 41 and we’re serving all their pastries downstairs and we have our own artisan coffee that we serve in all our restaurants as well. We work with a couple of different private businesses and then we make our own desserts, very high-end desserts for sitting in or takeaway.”

Finally, there is the well-appointed Kitchen Bistro. Also a new concept for Heskin, the idea was to take some of Gourmet Food Parlour’s existing concepts up a notch on the luxury scale. “It’s basically a high-end brunch destination,” she says. “Also we have tapas and sharing boards. Tapas is something that we’ve done for many years and has been very successful for us. We kind of elevate that slightly here and it’s working out really well.”

Eventually, Heskin and her team expect the Arnotts partnership to add €2.5 million to Gourmet Food Parlour’s annual revenues. There are, however, challenges the business is having to grapple with along with the rest of the hospitality sector.

Costs, particularly energy and labour, have risen sharply, and consumer sentiment has been a mixed bag this year.

[ EY Entrepreneur of the Year profiles: From pets to solar energy, healthcare and food catering, here are some of this year’s nominees ]

Abridged accounts filed 12 months ago for the Gourmet Food Market Company, the trading entity behind the brand, reveal accumulated profits of close to €1.4 million in 2021, up about €1 million from the previous year. With the company set to file its 2022 accounts over the coming weeks, what does Heskin expect them to look like?

“The accounts are going to show that probably it’s tough right now,” she says. “That we’re not going to create any financial miracles. But we’re trading strong and we’re also very analytical of our business.”

The senior team at the top of the business meet every Wednesday, she says, to go through the company’s finances. “We also review our finances daily,” says Heskin. “At the moment, you have to. You need to see who’s trending well, and we link our financial analysts to every single department. So [we look at] what our marketing strategy is for the short term and the next week versus how the financials are looking.”

That said, Gourmet Food Parlour is in “a growth pattern” right now, and Heskin hopes the business will generate revenues of €16 million this year. The goal is to reach €20 million with a particular focus on its high-margin catering and events division.

It started in 2010 when she rented a kitchen at Bill Cullen’s Europa Academy Conference Centre in Swords and has “grown significantly” since, she says. Gourmet Food Parlour is now a big player in the sports catering industry, making meals for the Dublin football team, the IRFU, the FAI, Connacht Rugby and Ireland’s next batch of Olympians in advance of Paris 2024.

Catering and events are expected to add €3.2 million to the company’s revenues this year, and Heskin sees potential in it for the future. Interestingly though, it was really the pandemic that forced Heskin’s team to “delve” into that business.

“It gave us time to stop and to really reflect on where we wanted to go,” says Heskin.

Heskin will double the Swords catering facility’s footprint – currently 5,000sq ft – in the first quarter of next year, also doubling its output. “We took the unit next door on the off-chance four years ago that we might need it. We’re very blessed that we do. So we’re going to knock in next door and double the output capacity.”

Heskin, who is originally from east Galway, is not a qualified chef. She studied politics and economics at the University of Limerick but it was her postgraduate degree in business that fired her imagination.

“I was nearly like Monica from Friends in class: ‘I know, I know!”

Her first job was in Roches Stores in Galway while she was still in university, starting in the supermarket. “I worked in nearly every department over the years during the summertime. It was one of the best jobs I ever had.”

I love food. I love dining out and entertaining and I just kind of always knew I wanted to set up my own business, I just didn’t know what

The real spark was Heskin’s decision in 2001 to move to New York, where she worked for an Irish food importer. “I was a sales rep in Manhattan. I always say I can write a song about this, because honestly, I was walking the streets of Manhattan selling Tayto cheese and onion to every corner store. Like, it was ridiculous but I loved it.”

Being exposed to the variety of food and coffee shops the Big Apple had to offer was a watershed moment. “I just fell in love with all of that. I love food. I love dining out and entertaining and I just kind of always knew I wanted to set up my own business, I just didn’t know what.”

Leaving the US was difficult but she found herself at a crossroads when the company she was working for was sold. Arriving back home in Ireland, she took the plunge. “I wanted to open up a food business, maybe a coffee house,” she says. “So I tried to find units in Dublin, but the Celtic Tiger was in full swing. So everyone said no. I was a mid-20s blonde. They were like: ‘What’s your business plan? What money do you have?’”

In 2006, Heskin found a 25-seat cafe on Cumberland Street in Dún Laoghaire. Straight away, she realised the potential in the business, leaving a good job and salary behind her at the Jacob Fruitfield food group. This being 2006, conspicuous consumption was the order of the day and the first Gourmet Food Parlour cafe satisfied growing demand for a bit of luxury. Think artisan sandwiches, antipasti boards, hand-selected wines and food imported from the US.

We’ve got a great structure to make sure that what Gourmet Food Parlour stands for is of a very high quality, and I don’t want to ever lose that aim

What started as one coffee shop in Dún Laoghaire has grown – with the addition of the three Arnotts concepts – into nine restaurants and a catering facility in Swords.

Heskin has taken a slow and steady approach to business development, ignoring the temptation to open as many restaurants as quickly as possible. She has yet to take on any investors and remains the sole shareholder of the company behind the Gourmet Food Parlour. The company has taken on some debt to fund the expansion of the catering division but, by and large, she is comfortable with the current structure and the flexibility of decision-making that it accommodates.

“It’s not that I never considered [bringing in an investor]. I have considered lots of things but I think what’s really important to me is the heart of what [the company] stands for. And that’s why I sleep at night. We’ve got a great structure to make sure that what Gourmet Food Parlour stands for is of a very high quality, and I don’t want to ever lose that aim.”

That structure has evolved in recent times, with Heskin taking on a managing director recently to oversee day-to-day operations.

Was that an attempt to take some pressure off her shoulders? “I don’t feel it as pressure. I love what I do. I love my job and I love the team and I love being around the team.”

That said, Heskin, a mother of three, admits she struggles to switch off. “I find it very difficult. My personal life is very busy but I really enjoy being involved with my kids and their sports and activities and everything that they’re doing in school. I’m very present. That’s very important to me.”

CV

Name Lorraine Heskin

Age 46

Family Married with three kids

Lives Co Meath

Hobbies Walking, listening to podcasts, reading, socialising with friends and family, and enjoying life

Something you might expect “I’m reliable and trustworthy.”

Something that might surprise “I need to prioritise time for myself to re-energise and prepare for how busy life can be.”