“Export markets are unforgiving”: Dawn Farms Foods

Established in 1984, Dawn Farm Foods, based in Naas, Co Kildare, is Europe’s leading supplier of cooked and fermented meats to international food service chains and leading food manufacturers. The company supplies a wide range of blue-chip customers in the food manufacturing and food service sectors throughout Europe for the pizza, sandwich and ready meals markets. It exports 80 per cent of its output to 40 countries from its factories in Naas, one of the most modern meat technology facilities in the European Union.

In 2010 the company won a €700 million seven-year contract to supply the Subway sandwich chain with meat ingredients, having supplied the chain since its first European store opened in 1993. According to head of business development John McGrath, among the key challenges that Dawn Farm Foods has had to overcome include developing an intimate knowledge of each of the export markets that it services. "That involves developing the right product for the market that fits with local consumers' needs, tastes and price expectations, while also fulfilling any regulatory obligations and requirements in
that market."

A compelling proposition is vital, McGrath maintains. “Export markets are unforgiving and competition is especially widespread in the food sector. In this scenario you have to provide a product and a service that your customers really want, not just what you wish to sell. Dawn Farm’s goal is to differentiate on things that others cannot easily do.

“Our experience suggests that to succeed you need to know who you are, what you are good at and how to build on that,” he says.