On 24 June 2016, the world awoke to the news that the UK had voted to leave the European Union. Stock markets tumbled, the value of sterling collapsed and Barry Murphy, managing director of Wexford company Coolhull Farm, knew he had a problem on his hands.
Like most food companies up and down the island of Ireland, Coolhull found itself very exposed to the UK market. At the time, all of Coolhull’s export business were destined solely for customers in the UK market. Murphy set to work diversifying export sales and safeguarding the family business from the potential risks of Brexit.
Origins
Coolhull Farm was first established in 1990 by Barry’s father Tomas, who was milking cows at the time on the family farm but wanted to move further up the value chain. Most dairy farmers in Ireland who make the move up the value chain tend to start making traditional dairy products such as cheese or yoghurt.
What’s unique about Tomas’s story is that he started out making a gelato-style Italian ice cream using the milk from the home farm. Over the years, the Murphy family has built and transitioned the business into manufacturing a whole range of desserts such as ice cream, cheesecake, mousses, pastries and cakes, while still using milk supplied from the family farm.
“I came home from living in the US in 2004 and joined the business,” says Barry.
“During the 1990s, my dad built the business and had developed supply deals with all the regional distributors at the time, such as C&R Foods in Killarney and Cahill Foods in Dublin.”
“However, the overall sales in the company really needed to be grown because we had big overheads at the time and a large staff of people. Even for a small company at the time, it was a capital-intensive business,” he says.
The Wexford native knuckled down and set about growing the business with the hard graft it takes to win new sales in the highly competitive foodservice sector. Like many an Irish food company has done over the years (and will continue to do), Murphy packed his car full of product and headed east across the Irish Sea in search of new business.
“I left home at 9 o’clock at night and landed in London at 5am the following morning with meetings lined up all day with potential customers. But all I learned from that trip was that we weren’t producing anything different to what the UK market already had,” says Murphy.
Lesson
This was an important lesson and pushed Coolhull to develop a strong culture of new product development (NPD) in order to differentiate itself. The company evolved its offering into new dessert formats and even developed a protein-enriched ice cream range, which it sells into foodservice caterers for hospitals.
The company started to see a return on its investment in NPD as sales continued to expand. By 2016, when the Brexit vote came along, Coolhull Farm had grown its sales across the Irish Sea to the extent that the UK accounted for almost a third (28%) of the total business.
“When Brexit came along, the UK was our only export market,” says Murphy.
“But we pushed ourselves to look at new markets and started attending trade shows like Anuga and Internorga in Germany.
For the last two years, we’ve been selling into Europe and have sales into new markets like Germany, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Denmark and Croatia.
“We never would have gone near these EU markets if it wasn’t for Brexit. Volumes are only starting but we’re establishing a footprint,” he adds.
Heading into 2019, Coolhull’s exposure to the UK market has reduced to 20% of total sales and this will only continue to shrink as the company sends greater volumes into continental markets.
The company has had to tweak its product range for continental consumers but the demand is there.
Silver lining
Since 24 June 2016, the Irish food industry has known that Brexit would be bad for business. Many food companies are extremely exposed to the UK and would be seriously damaged in a no-deal Brexit.
However, if there has been a silver lining to Brexit for the Irish food industry, it is that is has forced many Irish food companies into new markets in Europe.
Most Irish food companies begin exporting to the UK market because it is our nearest neighbour, we have a shared language and our food culture is very similar.
To win business in European markets, companies will often have to tweak or alter their product range for the continental consume
As a result, food companies never had to bother looking to continental Europe for business when such an attractive and high-value market was on our doorstep.
However, Brexit has pushed many Irish food companies out of their comfort zone to seek out new opportunities in Europe in a bid to diversify from the UK.
To win business in European markets, companies will often have to tweak or alter their product range for the continental consumer, overcome a language barrier or even bring new expertise into the business.
And while this can be a challenge, it will ultimately stand to the Irish food industry in the long run and harden the resilience of food companies.
As Barry Murphy and Coolhull Farm will attest, there is more than enough opportunity out there to de-risk from the UK. Firms just need to seek it out.
On 24 June 2016, the world awoke to the news that the UK had voted to leave the European Union. Stock markets tumbled, the value of sterling collapsed and Barry Murphy, managing director of Wexford company Coolhull Farm, knew he had a problem on his hands.
Like most food companies up and down the island of Ireland, Coolhull found itself very exposed to the UK market. At the time, all of Coolhull’s export business were destined solely for customers in the UK market. Murphy set to work diversifying export sales and safeguarding the family business from the potential risks of Brexit.
Origins
Coolhull Farm was first established in 1990 by Barry’s father Tomas, who was milking cows at the time on the family farm but wanted to move further up the value chain. Most dairy farmers in Ireland who make the move up the value chain tend to start making traditional dairy products such as cheese or yoghurt.
What’s unique about Tomas’s story is that he started out making a gelato-style Italian ice cream using the milk from the home farm. Over the years, the Murphy family has built and transitioned the business into manufacturing a whole range of desserts such as ice cream, cheesecake, mousses, pastries and cakes, while still using milk supplied from the family farm.
“I came home from living in the US in 2004 and joined the business,” says Barry.
“During the 1990s, my dad built the business and had developed supply deals with all the regional distributors at the time, such as C&R Foods in Killarney and Cahill Foods in Dublin.”
“However, the overall sales in the company really needed to be grown because we had big overheads at the time and a large staff of people. Even for a small company at the time, it was a capital-intensive business,” he says.
The Wexford native knuckled down and set about growing the business with the hard graft it takes to win new sales in the highly competitive foodservice sector. Like many an Irish food company has done over the years (and will continue to do), Murphy packed his car full of product and headed east across the Irish Sea in search of new business.
“I left home at 9 o’clock at night and landed in London at 5am the following morning with meetings lined up all day with potential customers. But all I learned from that trip was that we weren’t producing anything different to what the UK market already had,” says Murphy.
Lesson
This was an important lesson and pushed Coolhull to develop a strong culture of new product development (NPD) in order to differentiate itself. The company evolved its offering into new dessert formats and even developed a protein-enriched ice cream range, which it sells into foodservice caterers for hospitals.
The company started to see a return on its investment in NPD as sales continued to expand. By 2016, when the Brexit vote came along, Coolhull Farm had grown its sales across the Irish Sea to the extent that the UK accounted for almost a third (28%) of the total business.
“When Brexit came along, the UK was our only export market,” says Murphy.
“But we pushed ourselves to look at new markets and started attending trade shows like Anuga and Internorga in Germany.
For the last two years, we’ve been selling into Europe and have sales into new markets like Germany, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Denmark and Croatia.
“We never would have gone near these EU markets if it wasn’t for Brexit. Volumes are only starting but we’re establishing a footprint,” he adds.
Heading into 2019, Coolhull’s exposure to the UK market has reduced to 20% of total sales and this will only continue to shrink as the company sends greater volumes into continental markets.
The company has had to tweak its product range for continental consumers but the demand is there.
Silver lining
Since 24 June 2016, the Irish food industry has known that Brexit would be bad for business. Many food companies are extremely exposed to the UK and would be seriously damaged in a no-deal Brexit.
However, if there has been a silver lining to Brexit for the Irish food industry, it is that is has forced many Irish food companies into new markets in Europe.
Most Irish food companies begin exporting to the UK market because it is our nearest neighbour, we have a shared language and our food culture is very similar.
To win business in European markets, companies will often have to tweak or alter their product range for the continental consume
As a result, food companies never had to bother looking to continental Europe for business when such an attractive and high-value market was on our doorstep.
However, Brexit has pushed many Irish food companies out of their comfort zone to seek out new opportunities in Europe in a bid to diversify from the UK.
To win business in European markets, companies will often have to tweak or alter their product range for the continental consumer, overcome a language barrier or even bring new expertise into the business.
And while this can be a challenge, it will ultimately stand to the Irish food industry in the long run and harden the resilience of food companies.
As Barry Murphy and Coolhull Farm will attest, there is more than enough opportunity out there to de-risk from the UK. Firms just need to seek it out.
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