Food deal will bring a little taste of home to Australia

A deal has been reached which will see Tayto crisps, Barry's tea and Ireland's own fizzy orange significantly extending their reach in Australia.

Businessman Eamon Eastwood's Taste Ireland business has signed a multimillion euro deal with Australian retail giant Coles to stock a range of Irish products in 600 of its stores.

Tayto crisps, Barry's tea, Club Orange, Flahavan's Progress Oatlets and Batchelors Beans will reach the shelves of hundreds of supermarkets across Australia for the first time, while biscuits such as Kimberly, Mikado and Coconut Creams, soups from Erin and – possibly the most uniquely Irish product of them all – TK Red Lemonade, will also be widely available.

Increased turnover
The contract signed between Coles and Taste Ireland will be worth more than €2 million in the first year and will see the Irish company increase its turnover by 60 per cent. The deal will bring the number of Australian stores now stocking the company's Irish food brands to 1,000. It should dramatically reduce the need for friends and family to send care packages over to emigrants.

With more than half a million people with Irish passports currently living in Australia, the market is as ready-made as Bird’s Custard – which will also be available under the deal.

“What started as a niche boutique-style operation in 2004 has now flourished into a scalable and thriving enterprise,” Mr Eastwood said yesterday.

“On the supply side we have worked hand in hand with the Irish manufacturers who now see a potentially new market opening for them, whilst on the demand side, there are 600,000 Irish passport holders in Australia.”

Product reach
While the contract will significantly increase the reach of the Irish products sold by Taste Ireland, they have been available in Australia for a couple of years. In October 2011, the company signed a contract to supply Woolworths, which controls about 30 per cent of Australia's supermarket business.

Mr Eastwood was recently named by Enterprise Ireland as a start-up ambassador for Australia, as part of a strategy to encourage overseas entrepreneurs to locate their export focused start-up businesses in Ireland.