Taste Ireland sold almost one million packets of Tayto crisps in Australia last year. The Sydney-based company, which is run by Tyrone native Eamon Eastwood, who has been in Australia for 15 years, imports, sells and distributes Irish food products throughout Australia and New Zealand. Its key sellers are Tayto, Barry’s Tea and Club Orange, while in online sales, Eamon says it’s a close call between Barry’s and Lyons tea.

Taste Ireland products can be found on the supermarket shelves of Woolworths and Coles, which control 70% of the retail market in Australia.

“Woolworths and Coles have approximately 800 stores each, and we are in 600 Coles, and 400 Woolworths stores,” says Eamon.

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International – indeed ethnic food – is a key growth area in multicultural Australia. While most supermarkets stock the main Irish products, there are 25 products in the Irish bay in Woolworths in Bondi Junction and in other locations around the city.

“Coles are doing something similar in their store in the city centre, which has 80,000 customers a week; there are 30 products in the Irish section, and if it’s successful, they’ll role it out.”

One would expect that a company supplying food products to 1,000 supermarkets would need a multitude of staff, but Taste Ireland has just 12 people on its books. How so?

“The adoption of technologies is key. Distribution is sizable but we keep it very lean; distribution is outsourced. We don’t need people on the road delivering. We use a lot of outsourcing and cloud computing.”

Local appreciation

So are the Aussies converted to Tayto and Ballymaloe Relish or is it just the Irish buying these? Eamon says that while their customers are “Irish-influenced at large”, 30% of those buying Taste Ireland products are not Irish.

“We’ve had anecdotal conversations with Woolworths and Coles who say it’s not just Irish people who are purchasing. Our products are in the international aisle, alongside British, Dutch, South African and Slovakian food products. Immigrants are going down those aisles and being exposed to the Irish products.”

One of Taste Ireland’s most popular products is soda bread mix, as it’s not available in Australia.

“There is nothing like it in this market. It’s so unique. The nearest equivalent here is dampner. A 450g Odlums Farmhouse Bread Mix is going into Coles for the first time next month.”

Taste Ireland will also be distributing Brennan’s bread from January, which sounds like a logistical nightmare from a supply chain point of view.

“It has to come over frozen,” explains Eamon. “It’s flash-frozen upon production in Ireland, then shipped frozen and sold frozen.”

Another product being sold which may come as a surprise is Ballygowan.

“Ballygowan is being tested at the moment, but people have an emotional attachment to these brands. It’s the power of the brand – that’s what we’re about.”

Hampers

A big part of Taste Ireland’s business is supplying hampers for Irish people in Australia. Eamon notes the advantage of doing so through Taste Ireland rather than people at home organising packages themselves is the food is delivered to the recipients from within Australia, so there is no risk that customs and quarantines will confiscate it. While the hampers may seem expensive, customers are avoiding postal charges from Ireland.

Australian GAA

Eamon is also involved in Cormac McAnallen’s GAC club in Sydney.

“It’ll be the 10-year anniversary next year. The club is going from strength to strength. It has 250 members this year,” he says.

In a turn of events from five years ago, the Sydney-based club lost eight team members to Ireland this year – “the whole defence, essentially” – who all went home. But Eamon says the GAA scene is as vibrant as ever. New South Wales GAA has entered into a 10-year deal with the local council and a local AFL club at Monarch Fields in Ingleburn on the outskirts of Sydney. Three full-size GAA pitches have been set up as well as an adjourning 500-seater stadium. This is where the New South Wales senior men’s football team played the Australian AFL national team in a warm-up to the international rules .

Next year a new pavilion will be built beside the pitches which Croke Park are contributing towards.

But Cormac McAnallen’s GAC is not all about sport; there are at least six to seven married couples in the club. And Eamon notes that there are also plenty more “testing the water”.