Home-grown companies are taking on the world – and winning

If you build a better mousetrap the world will beat a path to your door, was once a popular business maxim. In 2023 such an attitude would likely be regarded as complacent, given the increasingly competitive international business landscape, but developing something unique and attractive with an eye to the export market – and making sure that the right people know about it – can prove a winning formula.

To find such innovativeness in Irish firms you need look no further than the food sector, which has taken advantage of Ireland’s reputation as a quality environment for sustainable food production. Take Keogh’s Crisps, for example. Before 2011 its business consisted solely of a family potato farm in north Co Dublin that had served the local market for around 200 years. Today, it is a successful branded snack food producer with exports to 20 countries and a listing in 100 stores in the UK’s upmarket Morrisons chain.

The crowded potato crisps market may not seem the most obvious route to success internationally but, as Tom Keogh explains, the firm exploited a number of angles.

“We have a genuine heritage story in our brand – not one that is made up – involving growing the potatoes and then producing the crisps on our farm,” says Keogh. “We have control of our production process from plough to plate and our emphasis on premium ingredients, textures and flavours gives our products a unique quality that buyers and consumers appreciate.”

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While the firm has won plaudits and multiple good taste and quality awards, the journey hasn’t been easy in recent years. Covid put huge pressure on the business, with rocketing freight costs, among other challenges, especially to the United States. Keogh recalls sleepless nights, with a ship carrying 14 containers of his products stuck in Oakland Harbour, San Francisco, nobody in the port to offload them and shelf life slipping away.

“One of the big risks that any company takes on when it gets into exporting is being able to deliver. Retailers rely on you to keep their shelves stocked and if you don’t, you’ll be replaced very quickly,” he says.

The firm dug it heels in, consolidated its customer base with retailers who would take a partnership approach with them, including accepting necessary price hikes, and is now poised for significant growth, Keogh says. It has continued to innovate and find new markets. It has broken into the airline snacks market, Singapore Airlines being among its customers, with a new unique product featuring miniaturised crisps in a depressurised pack.

Developing unique, quality products is one of the reasons why certain Irish exporters have been punching above their weight lately. Figures from Enterprise Ireland showed that among its client companies, exports increased by 19 per cent last year to a record level of €32.1 billion, with growth across all overseas regions and industry sectors.

Find a company that needs your product to sell to their existing customers. This may split your margin but it gives you an instant foothold in the market

—  Stephen Brewer

Exports to the euro zone increased by 28 per cent in 2022, with the euro zone now representing 25 per cent of all exports by Enterprise Ireland-backed companies. Surprisingly, this rise in euro-zone trade has been accompanied by strong Irish exports to the UK post-Brexit. Exports to the UK increased by 13 per cent, reaching €9.2 billion. Meanwhile, exports to North America increased by 13 per cent, reaching €5.5 billion, and North America now accounts for 17 per cent of all exports by Enterprise Ireland-backed companies.

Increases in exports were recorded across all sectors, with the food and sustainability category increasing by 23 per cent, technology and services up 18 per cent and industrial and life sciences 14 per cent higher.

Serial entrepreneur Stephen Brewer has extensive experience of cracking new export markets with early-stage technology firms he has either led or has been involved with, and has also shared his expertise with others on the same journey as a mentor with Enterprise Ireland. He says he found Enterprise Ireland a key asset in introducing him to companies that are in the same market but that are not direct competitors, an approach he recommends to others.

“Find a company that needs your product to sell to their existing customers. This may split your margin but it gives you an instant foothold in the market,” he advises.

Brewer advises companies to build on their success with domestic customers through case histories from satisfied clients and to explore their Irish clients’ networks.

“The person working in Ireland will often know overseas counterparts that they will have met through attending conferences, for example, and might be very happy to provide an introduction with a positive recommendation,” he says.

Market research is the key and Enterprise Ireland will support this, he adds. Use resources such as LinkedIn to find the person with the appropriate title for your approach. This won’t generally be the chief executive but could be a category manager in your product sector, for example. Make your case there and they might smooth a path to the procurement division for you. And don’t forget about the Diaspora, he adds, with Irish executives in key positions in many companies throughout the world, who may be more than willing to help.

Simon McKeever, chief executive of the Irish Exporters Association, acknowledges the buoyant figures from earlier this year but sounds a strong note of caution about prospects for the rest of 2023 into next year.

“I would be concerned that we are beginning to witness an economic slowdown around the world,” he says. “We know from talking to freight companies that there has been a recent slowdown on movement of goods on and off the island, and if you look at certain markets, such as China, you are seeing a significant drop-off in our exports, down around a third year on year for the first seven months of 2023.”

McKeever says we have not seen the full effects of the interest rate increases in Europe and cites the ongoing war in Ukraine, dampened consumer demand in many markets and the drought in the Panama Canal which is hampering shipping, as areas of concern. Nonetheless, he accepts the excellent performance of home-grown business.

“This has not fed into corporate Ireland. Indigenous Ireland is still performing strongly – they would be complaining that they can’t get people in order to meet demand. The Ineligible List of Occupations (for Employment Permits) is a major issue for our members in terms of getting people to work on the factory floor.”

Capacity constraints take many forms. Another very successful Irish food company, Silver Hill Duck in Co Monaghan, can’t keep up with demand for its products from the international food service sector and is seeking planning permission for an expanded facility that will push production from its current level of 80,000 ducks a week to 120,000. It currently has exports of €35 million a year, the lion’s share of its turnover, and if its new facility comes on stream all of the extra capacity will go to serve exports markets.

Silver Hill has a long tradition for exporting exceptionally high quality duck, which is ultimately served in high-end restaurants and hotels. It was a market cracked initially in Chinatown in London on the 1980s, where it is still hugely popular, explains managing director Micheál Briody. Restaurant diners there, including many working in London’s financial district, were hugely impressed with the quality of the Silver Hill product they ate there and looked to source it, leading to a steady increase in exports over the years.

Singapore is now Silver Hill’s second-largest market behind the UK and the firm has also cracked markets in the Middle East such as Dubai and Saudi Arabia, as well as in Europe. It hopes to gain market access to Malaysia shortly.

Briody agrees with Stephen Brewer on the need to develop local partners. “You can’t do it directly from here. We couldn’t have people from Emyvale going over every second week knocking on doors. You need someone who knows the local market. We have someone on the ground through a distributor in Singapore, for example, developing business in the region. While we visit a lot of the high-end customers, we have one single source of p when we go there.”

Despite the challenges – and recent concern about a slowdown in international trade generally – optimism continues at company level. Almost three-quarters (74 per cent) of Irish firms are planning to expand to other countries in the next year, a survey by payment provider Stripe has found. The poll, based on 2022 data, found Irish firms were more likely to be planning global expansion than other companies (66 per cent). Forty per cent of Irish firms with expansion plans are heading for Europe, with a fifth looking to North America and the same number considering south Asia.

Half of all Irish firms surveyed said it was easier to run an international business than five years previously and, interestingly, 83 per cent of Irish firms run by a single person now sell internationally.