Artisan: crafty producers adapt to the crunch

When the downturn hit, Janet Drew took action. Drew has been selling her premium chutney and relish range, Janet’s Country Fayre, through independent speciality food stores since 2003.

Two years ago, with the help of a bank loan and support from her local county enterprise board, she invested in new equipment to enable her launch an entirely new range of chutneys aimed at supermarkets.

The range, which retails for less, sells under the Janet’s Just Delicious brand. She is now also diversifying into other areas, including pasta sauces.

Diversifying in this way will help keep her business growing in a difficult market, she reckons. “Unfortunately the recession has seen the demise of very many lovely independent stores and if I was still relying solely on that sector I’d be struggling very hard now,” she said.

While sales have continued to grow, two years ago she was hit with bad debts as a result of the closure of some independent stores. “We were hung out to dry in some cases, which was very hard for the business but, thankfully, we are growing turnover again now and achieving the margins we need,” said Drew.

Conor Hyde of Bullseye, a food marketing company, believes Drew has taken all the right steps to cope with recession.

Very many of his clients are artisanal producers and in straitened times, such luxury food items are vulnerable to shrinking household budgets.

On the other hand, they stand to benefit from food scares. “A lot of our clients have recently seen a sales bounce thanks to the whole horsegate burger scandal,” says Hyde.

That crisis has driven home to consumers, at home and abroad, the importance of knowing where your food comes from , he said, to the advantage of artisanal producers. In the meantime, many artisanal producers have had to adjust their price points in response to the downturn.

“As with every business category at the moment, food producers are striving to be seen to offer good value as well as good food,” says Hyde.

Many small Irish food producers have therefore started to offer smaller portion sizes and fixed weight pack sizes to hit a more acceptable price point on the shelf.

“Some 70 per cent of all food on the shelf sells at below a €3 price point. A fiver is a psychological barrier for Irish food shoppers that they will not cross,” said Hyde.

Food exports have become a big goal for smaller artisans food brands in response to difficulty in the domestic market. “There is no reason why small food brands cannot export as well as the larger Irish food brands if they find the right market niche in mainland EU,” said Hyde.

Recently eight artisan food companies banded together to exhibit at IFE 2013, a London trade show, for the first time, he pointed out. The move resulted in €500,000 worth of export sales.

For entrepreneur Owen O’Brien, the downturn was in fact the perfect time to build a premium food business.

O’Brien, who has a background in catering, set up Kinsale Gourmet last year, specialising in sea vegetable based meals. Today the company employs 10 people, exports to the UK and, despite significant capital investment, has just turned into profit.

Part of its success is down to innovation. “Ours is a premium product, but frozen, so it will keep in the freezer just like a pizza. More than that, it is a functional food, in that it delivers the health benefits of seaweed. Sea veg, which is another term for seaweed, has more vitamins and minerals in it than any land based veg, and are high in anti-oxidants too,” says O’Brien.

“It’s a good idea to export to places such as France, as we are about to do, which has a market of 60 million and people who still have money and are prepared to pay for good food.”