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Dawn Farm Foods is now the largest multi-species business-to-business cooked meat ingredient anywhere in the world outside of North America, CEO Larry Murrin has said.
Speaking at last week’s MSD event, Sustainable Irish Food Production in Global Markets, he outlined how the company has forged itself in global geographic markets.
The company is also producing cooked meat products for Subway, the largest sandwich chain in the world.
“If you go into a branch of Subway from Athens to Athenry and you have a sandwich on the menu, you are eating protein that we manufactured in Naas, Co Kildare,” Murrin says.
Dawn Farm Foods is a top producer for three of the largest pizza chains in the world, allowing the business to delve into more than 40 geographic markets.
“We produce enough pepperoni and salami to circle the world five times, every year,” says Murrin.
For context, that would be production in the region 200,375km of pepperoni and salami. The business produces enough ham to cover the pitch at the Aviva stadium more than 5,000 times.
To what does he owe its success?
“It’s a simple ethos that has been at the core of everything that we have done. You don’t build a business like we have done without having developed some fantastic relationships along the way,” says Murrin.
“One thing is, you don’t build great relationships unless you do what you say you are going to do, or have great people working with you.
“You don’t do that unless your layers of the proposition are filled.”
The consumer remains at the heart of everything that Dawn Farm Foods strives to achieve.
“In short, everyone in our organisation must support the consumer or support someone who does. The suit that I am standing in talking to you was paid for by a customer, the car I drive and the holiday that I might have is paid for by a customer,” he said.
The business
The business began over 30 years ago in Ballyfermot as a 12-man startup, which included Murrin’s two sisters and mother.
It now has three facilities, two of which are located in Naas, employing 750 to 800 people and includes their corporate HQ, as well as a science and innovation function. The other is located in the UK.
When the business began, CBF, as it was formerly known, categorised food activity in Ireland as beef, dairy and other. Dawn Farm Foods fell into the other sector and offered prepared consumer foods.
“My sector is worth €4.2bn in revenue, 22,000 direct jobs and several thousand more of them that lead indirectly to the economy.
“We are a very proud part of the food industry, but back then it was just packing in the late 1980s. If I went out to knock on the door, if you managed to sell something, your next challenge was to get it delivered,” he said.
Ireland in a good starting position to meet sustainable food demands
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