Keystone Foods add spice after buying Walsh Family Foods

THE COMPANY which makes the famous Irish culinary invention, the spice burger, has been sold to a US multinational company. Keystone Foods plans not only to continue making the unique burger, but to distribute it more widely into Europe.

Walsh Family Foods has been in receivership since 2009 but yesterday it was announced that Keystone Foods had acquired the Dublin company. The multinational will get all the intellectual property and patents in this move, including the secret spice burger recipe.

It will continue to market the spice burger and hopes to use its wide European network to export the company’s products. It also plans to develop new products for the Irish and pan-European markets. It intends to grow and invest in the Irish plant which is based in Finglas and retain all 21 existing employees.

Keystone Foods is headquartered in Pennsylvania but has more than 13,000 employees in 13 countries. Supplying beef, poultry, fish and pork products to tens of thousands of fast food restaurants is one of its main markets.

The sale was “an immediate boost” to Keystone Foods’ strategic growth plans in Europe, receiver Kieran Walsh of KPMG said yesterday.

It was an “exciting development” for Walsh Family Foods, he added. “The acquisition by such a respected global player bodes well for the future success of the operation and its employees,” he said.

The settlement of a legal row over the secret recipe for the spice burger in September 2009 cleared the way for the company to be sold.

In June 2009 fears over the future of the spice burger were raised when the company went into receivership.

However, campaigns to “save the spice burger” piqued the interest of suppliers whose orders justified a part-time resumption of production.

Spice burgers were invented by butcher Maurice Walsh at his shop in Glasnevin in the early 1950s.

His firm, Walsh Family Foods, patented the recipe, which it describes as “a delicious blend of Irish beef, onions, cereals, herbs and spices coated with traditional outer crumb”.

The spice burger is one of many products manufactured by the Finglas company. It also makes frozen products such as onion rings and garlic mushrooms

Walsh Family Foods will join another well-known Irish company in this move. Keystone Foods is part of the Marfig Group whose companies include Moy Park chicken.