Bord Bia Awards: rewarding the best of Ireland’s food and drink industry

INNOVATION AWARD COMPANY: GALLAGHER’S BAKERY - PURE BRED

Innovation has been central to the success of the Pure Bred range and the business has a unique ability to address consumer needs. They are the only brand in the world to deliver low fat, low sugar and high fibre across the full gluten-free range.

INNOVATION

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Alina Ui Chaollai, marketing director, Tayto

The versatility of the business has allowed for the ongoing development of new products, like Chia Seed Loaf and a non-GMO range for North America. Gallagher’s have developed a new sales opportunity with the pharmacy channel in the US. They are now trading with 5,200 CVS stores and will shortly begin trading with 4,500 Rite Aid stores. This is in addition to new food service contracts in Australia, UK and US.

COMPANY: OLIVER CARTY – VOA FOODS

Oliver Carty's core business is as a pork and bacon manufacturer and packer to the food industry. Operating in the Irish market for over 60 years, Oliver Carty began as a family business in Athlone and has built itself up to become a dynamic company. They have been shortlisted based on their new business unit VOA Foods. INNOVATION In 2013, the company formed a strategic partnership with German food ingredients giant AVO which allowed them to tap into a wealth of knowledge in food ingredients manufacturing. VOA Foods specialises in manufacturing value added food ingredients like high quality, bespoke marinades, rubs, sauces, flavoured butters, stuffings and crumbs. These compliment Oliver Carty's existing core business of pork and bacon manufacturing.

COMPANY: McCORMACK FARMS - RAW JUICE

For over 30 years, Edward McCormack and his family have been selling fruit, vegetables and herbs from his farm business in Kiltale, Co Meath. More recently, and with the support of his son Stephen and Christian McManus, financial director and co-owner, the business has launched a healthy raw juice drink in three flavours.

McCormacks uses technology, unique to the Irish market, to mix, emulsify, homogenise, solubilise, suspend, disperse and disintegrate the fresh fruit and vegetables. This outperforms conventional methods. This means that 100 per cent of the baby leaf, spinach, beetleaf, kale or peashoot product is retained in the final juice.

COMPANY: NOBÓ

Nobó is a young Dublin-based food company dedicated to creating the world's finest dairy-free, healthy, and delicious foods. Founded by Brian and Rachel Nolan, the company's first product is Frozen Goodness, an award winning dairy-free alternative to ice cream. It is the world's first ice cream alternative made from avocado and coconut milk and sweetened with pure honey.

To gauge consumer reaction, in 2012, Brian and Rachel spent the summer weekends at Marlay Park and Dún Laoghaire farmers’ markets. These markets provided the ideal testing grounds and resulted in key consumer feedback on taste, texture and branding.

CONSUMER INSIGHT AWARD COMPANY: ORNUA

Ornua (formerly the Irish Dairy Board) is Ireland's largest exporter of Irish dairy products with an annual turnover in excess of €2.3bn and a presence in over 110 countries worldwide. It is constantly striving to develop innovative products tailored to the needs of its diverse markets. To support this strategy, Ornua invested in extensive market research for a new premium Irish cream liqueur to expand the Irish cream liqueur category.

CONSUMER INSIGHT

Its research sought to understand if a gap in the market existed for a premium Irish cream liqueur (Kerrygold Irish Cream Liqueur), and if it was a good fit for the Kerrygold brand. Kerrygold identified an opportunity to leverage its premium, ‘great taste’ brand equity, due to its grass-fed nature. This delivered a clear selling point.

COMPANY: GALLAGHER’S BAKERY

In 2011 Gallagher's Bakery knew there was a global opportunity for high quality, nutritionally-sound, gluten-free bakery products. Their objective: to develop the world's finest gluten-free bakery range and build a global brand (Pure Bred Gluten Free Range).

CONSUMER INSIGHT

To do so, they needed a brand that clearly differentiated their product from others. Its research included qualitative and quantitative research to understand consumer experience of existing brands; face-to-face discussions with leading Coeliac associations; desk research on studies and reports from leading dieticians; and product evaluation of all leading global gluten-free brands.

COMPANY: GLENISK

As part of its 2014/2015 business plans, it set out to grow the declining yogurt market, as well as their own market share. They relied heavily on consumer insight to identify a consumer need, to develop a new product and market it in a way that resonated. Glenisk developed a range of high protein, authentically strained Greek Yogurt.

CONSUMER INSIGHT

They commissioned intensive quantitative and qualitative research over a 12-month period and engaged with consumers to ‘co-create’ the range. Members of this group worked with Glenisk in completing online surveys, attending focus-groups, conducting in-home tastings, participating in one-to-one interviews.

COMPANY: THE HAPPY PEAR

The Happy Pear started as a veg shop in Greystones, Co Wicklow. Today, the brand includes a family-run natural food store, two wholefood cafés and restaurant, a superfood sprout farm in Kilcoole, Co Wicklow, an own-label food manufacturing and distribution business, an online shop, a bestselling cookbook, a significant social media following, health education courses and membership of Jamie Oliver's exclusive Food Tube family.

CONSUMER INSIGHT

The Happy Pear has kept a simple yet effective marketing communications strategy. It is closely aligned to the business’s mission which is to make healthy food mainstream and inspire a healthier, happier world.

ENTREPRENEURIAL AWARD COMPANY: TEELING WHISKEY

The Teeling family has a long tradition of crafting Irish whiskey. In 1782, Walter Teeling set up a craft distillery on Marrowbone Lane in the Liberties area of Dublin. Today, Jack and Stephen, the latest generation of Teelings, continue to carry on the family's legacy.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

For over 20 years, whiskey is ranked as the fastest-growing spirit in the world by the International Wine and Spirits Report, with Irish whiskey being the fastest growing segment. Recognising this significant growth potential, in 2013, the Teeling Whiskey Company announced a €10 million investment in a new distillery and visitors centre in the Newmarket area of The Liberties, making it the first new distillery in Dublin in 125 years. The new distillery has the capacity to produce 500,000 litres of whiskey on an annual basis and consists of three traditional copper pot stills reviving the traditional style of the old Dublin distilleries.

The Teeling Whiskey brand is available across Ireland and is currently exported to over 37 markets around the world.

COMPANY: THE PENNY LOAF CO.

The Penny Loaf Co. was established in April 2013 by O'Donohues Bakery of Tullamore, Co. Offaly. O'Donohues Bakery is a family run business that was re-established in 1989 by husband and wife, Cathal and Frances O'Donohue. Now in its fourth generation, O'Donohues continue to manufacture and supply premium quality yeast and soda bread products to the retail sector with key customers including the main multiples and independent stores.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The effects of the economic downturn and growth of the discounters lead O’Donohue’s to diversify. This coupled with the continuous monitoring of trends and dedication to new product development helped the company develop the award winning ‘Penny Loaf’.

The Penny Loaf is an Irish soda bread that is fully baked in the shape of a mini loaf (45-55g) and frozen. As a “thaw and serve” product it is an alternative to the common bread roll and its unique portion size and attractive product range, offers versatility for many aspects of the food service sector. Once thawed, they can last up to 3 days when stored correctly, thus helping the chef limit their wastage. Launched in 2013, the Penny Loaf is currently being used by chefs and food service operators across Ireland and the UK.

COMPANY: GALLAGHER’S BAKERY

Gallagher’s Bakery was established in 1968 as a family business in Ardara, Co Donegal. The bakery traditionally serviced the northwest region with conventional bakery products, until 2012 when they entered the gluten free bakery market. Today, they export all over the world.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Three years ago, having analysed the traditional bakery market in Ireland and UK, the group concluded the bakery market was in continued decline as consumers moved away from traditional bread for health/lifestyle reasons. In stark contrast they identified the gluten-free bakery market as a high growth/high margin category that seemed destined for continued strong growth, across many countries around the world. They were convinced there was an opportunity to offer something better and with the right balance on taste, texture and nutritional values, there was a real opportunity to establish a global brand. In addition to engaging with Celiac Associations around the world, they invested in comprehensive global qualitative and quantitative research to understand consumer experience of existing brands. In a series of taste tests, their newly developed Pure Bred Gluten Free Range rated highest and feedback from consumers and retailers alike was unanimously positive.

Today, Gallagher's Bakery successfully trade with the biggest and best retailers in the world such as Coles and Woolworths in Australia, Loblaws, Sobeys, Metro and Federated C0-OP in Canada and Shop Rite, Safeway, Kroger, Ingles, Harris Teeter and CVS in US.

BRANDING AWARD COMPANY: LARGO FOODS – TAYTO

Tayto is Ireland's top crisp brand but even our most established brands need to innovate to maintain market share. Largo Foods has been shortlisted for this award based on the success of its recent 'Tayto - More than a Just a Crisp' brand-repositioning campaign.

BRANDING

In 2010, Largo Foods conducted quantitative consumer research which showed that youth audiences felt less connected to the Tayto brand than older generations, necessitating the creation of new positioning. The key task was to increase topicality for younger consumers by generating more engaging communications while avoiding alienating the traditional Tayto consumer. The digital environment was critical to reach the youth audience since the online environment is central to their existence.

The campaign included in-store promotions, TV, print and online ads, outdoor ads and on-pack promotion. Tayto opened a pop-up shop in Wicklow St, D2 where consumers could meet Mr Tayto or buy merchandise and/or a Tayto sandwich. Fifty per cent of all sandwich sale income was donated to the Dublin Simon Community. The campaign was amplified through a social media campaign using Facebook, Twitter, snapchat and Instagram.

The campaign delivered a 10 per cent increase in sales; a 3.4 per cent increase in market share and a significant increase in Tayto Park footfall.

COMPANY: GLANBIA – AVONMORE SUPER MILK

Glanbia is a leading performance nutrition and ingredients group, employing over 5,800 people in 34 countries. Headquartered in Kilkenny, it has leading brands in cheese, cream and liquid milk, and its products are sold or distributed in over 130 worldwide. Avonmore Super Milk is its flagship brand and in 2014, Glanbia set out on an aggressive growth strategy.

BRANDING

The campaign was based on the insight that consumers are concerned about the lack of vitamin D in their diet and posing Super Milk as the solution would shift the dial in terms of market share. Glanbia sought to strengthen the consumer connection with a new creative campaign called “Playground of Life”. It showed the generations of Irish families growing up, enjoying life and not slowing down as they got older. The campaign included TV, outdoor, radio and digital ads, video on demand content, a new website highlighting the benefits of vitamin D, in-store sampling and point of sale marketing. Glanbia partnered with relevant online outlets such as mummypages, the journal.ie, joe.ie and her.ie.

Super Milk sales grew by 4 per cent in a category with declining sales last year and it outperformed overall milk sales by as much as 6.3 per cent in volume terms.

COMPANY: GLENISK

From Killeigh, Co Offaly, Glenisk is a family-run producer of organic dairy and goats milk products. Established in 1987, the company switched to organic yogurt production in 1995 and now works with 50 small farms across Ireland. With a history of innovation, Glenisk’s milestones include the launch of goats milk products, sugar-free children’s recipes, baby yogurts and authentically strained, high protein range of yogurts.

BRANDING

Glenisk noted a shift in customer attitudes towards a quest for health and wellness. Consumers are looking for ways to consume more protein and Greek Yogurt provided the solution. Qualitative research confirmed there was an opportunity to develop a new protein yoghurt.

With the introduction of the new Glenisk 0 per cent Fat Greek Protein Yogurt range, the company opened up its brand portfolio to a new audience. Glenisk focussed on packaging, in-store events and activation, digital and sponsorship. They targeted online influencers, fitness enthusiasts, personal trainers, health bloggers, food bloggers, key members of Irish Fit Fam – an online community of fitness enthusiasts who try to eat clean. The campaign was hugely successful, with exponential social media growth. Over 8,000 Irish consumer applied for a free sample yogurt!