Smurfit Communications consumes gourmet title for undisclosed sum

Smurfit Communications has bought Food & Wine magazine from its founder and publisher, Mr Kevin Kelly. Details of the deal have not been released but it is known that Mr Kelly was looking for about £175,000 (#222,220) for the title.

According to Ms Norah Casey, chief executive of Smurfit Communications, the purchase is in line with the company's strategy of "developing high-quality magazine brands in defined sectors". The company publishes mainly women's magazines, including Woman's Way, Irish Tatler and U magazine. It also has a contract publishing division where the titles include Cara magazine - Aer Lingus's inflight magazine, and SQ, Superquinn's in-store title. Publishing the latter magazine would have helped the company develop strong links with food advertisers and increased its experience of food-related editorial, two factors which are key to the success of a specialist food and wine magazine.

With Food & Wine, Mr Kelly and his editor, Ms Jillian Bolger, developed a sophisticated and high-quality publication. However he admits that it simply didn't work and there have been estimates that the title could have lost as much as £150,000 last year alone.

Rumours that the title was for sale were circulating for at least six months before Mr Kelly officially put it on the market last month. Several would-be buyers considered the price too high because although the magazine has been in existence since 1997 its masthead title is not perceived as being particularly special. Once the magazine was off the news stands, for example, a rival publisher could freely have set up a title called Irish Wine and Food or some name incorporating the same words.

Given the relative ordinariness of the name and the fact that the deal did not include the magazine's staff, there had been speculation that the buyer would be someone wanting to get a toehold into the Irish magazine business and not an experienced publishing company which would easily have designed and published its own foody title for an investment considerably less than Mr Kelly's asking price. "Food & Wine has a good reputation in the market place," says Ms Casey about the acquisition. She says Smurfit, as a publisher with several titles, can bring synergy to the operation.

She has now employed Food & Wine's editor as well as the deputy editor and the designer so there will be no break in editorial continuity and the next issue of the magazine will be on the news stands in September.

The magazine sector in Ireland has been under intense competition in recent years primarily from UK titles but also from Irish newspapers which increasingly include magazine-type features and supplements.

Food & Wine under Mr Kelly had notably high production values with commissioned food photography and several specialist columnists. It lost money because its circulation hovered around 12,000 per issue. For Smurfit to break even while maintaining the same high standards, Ms Casey will have to double that figure at least - a daunting task in a very crowded market.

bharrison@irish-times.ie