Clonakilty’s black magic rules the globe

With over 40 years in the food business, it’s fair to say that Colette Twomey knows her pudding.

The woman behind the success of Clonakilty Black Pudding, plus a wide range of additional products, remembers the early days of the fledgling family company when she and her late husband Edward were ‘frying’ by the seat of their pants.

“The business grew in a very organic way without any real business plan,” she recalled. Marketing back in the early days was traveling around the country, skillet in hand, to agricultural shows and ICA nights, and cooking the product on the spot - it was consumer testing in the raw.

“We would cook it, serve it and listen to the feedback, and it all went from there. We believed in the black pudding so much, we thought how great it would be to get it into the shops where everybody could get it.” It was a vision that not only sustained the fledgling company, but also drove the growth and expansion in the years that followed.

“It was all about the quality and the taste, things that couldn’t be put on a billboard.”

The background to Clonakilty Black Pudding goes back over 100 years, to when a local woman, Joanne O’Brien, first assembled the secret recipe still used in the making of the pudding today.

When Colette and Edward married in 1977 and they took over Harrington’s butcher’s shop from his uncle, it came with that same black pudding recipe that had remained a part of the business over the years.

“We didn’t have a background in the business and had to do a crash course. Edward’s greatest attribute wasn’t so much his butchering skills, as his people skills. He just loved people.”

There was never any specific master plan in the early days, only their combined enthusiasm and passion for the product that became its guiding vision.

“The product went first and we built the business structures behind it as it grew. When we were starting out, agriculture was just farming and food wasn’t recognised, whereas the nowadays anybody can see the farming practices and how obvious the food chain is.”

Community engagement is central to the company's identity

When Edward passed away unexpectedly in 2005, Colette was faced with the sudden decision of whether to sell the business or keep it in the family for their children to one day have the option of taking it over.

“We quickly realised it wouldn’t be enough to keep running the company the same way as we had been doing up to that point. We realised we had to continue to grow and innovate to stay successful into the future.”

A business mentor at the time imparted advice that helped her focus on the company’s future direction: “He said you cannot run a business by anybody else’s style — you have to work to your own style.”

With the product an established brand in shops and supermarket shelves across Ireland, Clonakilty Black Pudding began to gain a foothold in markets further afield. Initially, the favoured product taken back by Irish ex-pats and emigrants after Christmas and summer holidays to their lives overseas, the familiar packaging began to appear in stores many miles from Clonakilty.

In 2012, Tesco in the UK stocked it for the first time, followed soon after by contracts to supply stores in Dubai, Hong Kong and Spain. Australia and the US, with their huge Irish populations, are already well on the company’s export radar as well.

“You could certainly say that wherever there is an Irish community, our black pudding won’t be far away from it.”

During the pandemic, the compant assembled hampers for those overseas markets, offering a taste of home to the thousands of Irish who couldn’t come back due to the lockdown restrictions.

Down the decades, the success of Clonakilty Black Pudding has been inextricably tied to a keen sense of community, with the local people as ambassadors.

“People have pride in their local producers, and when someone compliments the pudding, it’s like they’re complimenting them. You can’t buy that kind of enthusiasm.”

Recognised for her leadership and entrepreneurial spirit, Colette has been WMB Entrepreneur of the Year, Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year and EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist — all of which underline her commitment to nurturing a small family business into the global name brand it is today.

Success was often about following an instinct: “Follow your instinct and you’ll know when an opportunity is right. Constant innovation is part and parcel of moving forward. You have to reinvent what you do and try new things. The recipe may have stayed the same for a century, but people always want new ideas and different ways of using the product.”