BOUNCING BACK:Surviving is the new success and one couple have the perfect recipe for it: self-reliance, imagination and a French rotisserie oven
IT COULD be argued there’s no greater motivation to succeed than the urgent cries of your newborn infant; the wails of one would turn the most horizontally laid back individual into a hunter-gatherer extraordinaire practically overnight.
Gavin McCarthy was laid off from his job as an auctioneer/valuer for a major developer in September 2008 when his newborn son was three weeks old. At first he didn’t feel especially panicked.
His wife, Sara Mitchell, had set up a marketing business on maternity leave and Gavin had vague notions of returning to the construction/development industry.
“But I knew there were problems in the industry well before the writing was on the wall for my job.
“The pricing structure for property was unsustainably crazy. In 2006 I sold apartments in Dundrum and we had queues of people looking to buy. A year later sales were drying up. It had all been fantasy land.”
McCarthy, who has a business degree, initially tried to set up in business as a negotiator between developers and banks but the banks weren’t interested. Returning to his old profession was not going to happen. Then he mulled around the possibility of a sandwich delivery business but whilst on a family break in Spain, he saw a rotisserie chicken business and had his moment of inspiration.
Gavin came home and started his research. He tried dozens of different products until he found his perfect chicken, a free range product he sources from two farms in Co Limerick. With the same dedication, he and his wife sat up nights working on recipes for marinades and sauces.
Through trial and error the couple eventually hit on their ideal blend. Using his redundancy money he brought the best rotisserie ovens he could find from France and had a trailer custom made. He had approached his local County Enterprise Board but as his wasn’t a manufacturing enterprise he couldn’t get funding there. It hasn’t stopped him.
From idea to opening took McCarthy and Mitchell five months.
Then he hit the phones and Poulet Bonne Femme, named for a chicken casserole recipe, was up and running.
“My first market was a Saturday morning in Marley Park in May 2009. I sold out of my spit-roasted half and full chickens that day and the organisers told me they had a spare spot for their Sunday Market in The People’s Park, Dún Laoghaire.
“I got that position and it was a turning point. I now do seven markets a week, with two trailers. I employ myself and my wife and one other person who is almost full time. Much of our business is repeat business and word of mouth.”
McCarthy and Mitchell have their own secret blend of herbs and oils in which they marinate the product the night before a market. It’s all hand done with a lot of care. I’d say not even a brown envelope would extricate the secret recipe from the affable McCarthy.
Poulet Bonne Femme also sells chicken wings, fresh chicken rolls, lunch specials and coleslaw. Everything is home-made; artisan products that attract return customers week after week. They also have regular lunch offers.
Sara provides recipes with the chicken as the couple believe customers like to use the complete product. So there are recipes for casserole Poulet Bonne Femme and coq au vin, chicken quesadillas and to wring really good value from your purchase, a recipe for stock made from the leftovers.
Poulet Bonne Femme also provides catering for private parties and family celebrations such as communions and confirmations, a blessing for mithered mammies on such occasions. And, Gavin promises, they will cater for every budget and taste.
In March this year, McCarthy won the Best Emerging New Business Award with the Small Firms Association and a few weeks ago threw a party to celebrate the couple’s first successful year in business and another new addition to the McCarthy clan. Customers, friends and family turned up to feast and hear a band called, appropriately enough, Hot Chicken. The couple wanted to give something back to their loyal supporters and they hope to make it an annual event.
“We needed to celebrate, to lift the gloom,” says McCarthy. “We are surviving; surviving is the new success. We would never go back to our old way of life. I love what I do now and I’m looking for new ways to grow our business. It’s nice to be able to build something, apart from apartments,” he grins.
“Irish people are remarkably resilient. Our human spirit is a resource. If everyone comes down a level in terms of expectations we will survive this recession together. But get up off your backsides. Don’t wait for a government to do anything for you. Believe in yourself and if you have an idea, go for it.”
www.pouletbonnefemme.com