When Paddy O’Connell was a student in Dublin, studying auctioneering in DIT, he went on a J1 summer of a lifetime to Hawaii.
Always one to be health conscious and with a big interest in food, he particularly enjoyed the range of granolas he could get over there for breakfast. When he returned home he grew frustrated with the lack of options in Ireland. One day a friend suggested to him that he make his own. So he did. That was the lightbulb moment.
Like most businesses it started in humble surroundings: his mother’s kitchen in the house he grew up in in Cullahill. Now Paddy O’s Cereals is a big business and a well-known brand, stocked in all the main supermarkets. It also has a food service side that sees him supply a lot of the top hotels in Ireland and everything from the Garda Training College in Templemore to many of the Army barracks around the country.
From those early days in Cullahill more than ten years ago to now is quite the story.
But before we tell Paddy’s tale, we’ll go back in time a bit.
Paddy is one of the O’Connells from Cullahill. His father William is the second oldest in a family of nine. Darina – who would become Darina Allen – was older but it was William that came home to run the family business at the age of 16 after his father died.
The business is still there now in the guise of a pub. Then it was your typical rural Irish establishment, complete with an undertakers, a grocers, a hardware and a post office.
Paddy is the youngest of William and Una’s three sons. After primary school in Cullahill he then headed to Kilkenny College as a day student. From there it was on to DIT. The economy was booming and Paddy threw himself into an auctioneering degree.
Midway through college he discovered his granola product. “A friend said to me ‘do you like this – why don’t you go sell it’.”
Living in Dublin, he used to return home at weekends, make the granola, bag it, load it up into the boot of his car and go to farmers markets. It sold well from the start.
His first big customer was Mary Lowry from Timahoe, who he’d meet regularly at the various markets. “She was the first person to ever buy a group of products from me,” says Paddy. “Rather than me selling them at farmers markets, she said ‘give me 10’. I remember vividly thinking – I’m onto something here.”
While his studies became something of an afterthought, he did enough to get out with a degree and worked in Dublin for a year in property. But by now the recession was kicking in. Sales were hard to come by.
He did the famous three-month cookery course in Ballymaloe – where he’d also meet his South African wife Tammy – and was back home in Laois where he cranked up production.
“My mother kicked me out,” he laughs. She wanted her kitchen back. But he didn’t have to go far. “Above the bar was vacant,” he adds. “Bought ovens, started making it and then getting orders in.
“Mary Lowry was buying to sell at other farmers market. I was muddling along and then she said, give me 10. And then Peter Ward in Country Choice in Naas – I joined up with Good Food Ireland – said give me 60 bags. And I was like ‘Jaysus’.
“Then a distributor got in touch and said given me 120 cases – and how many was in a case? I was like ‘I never put them into a case before’.”
Pat Delaney in the SuperValu in Rathdowney was one of the first to supermarkets to stock it and others followed too.
But the big break was getting into Tesco. And to get in, he banged the door himself.
He was at the Bloom food festival one year and got word that the Tesco buyer was there. Someone in Bord Bia pointed him the right direction.
“So I went up to Rachel Lawless – brazen out. I was young but I’d still do it now. It had to be done. But she said come in for a meeting. I had to wait for a good while but they got onto me eventually.”
He went in with his originally basic packaging and stickers. The order was to change that and come back to them. When he did, they gave him access to 10 stores.
“I remember my heart racing. Had to go to all stores myself – Tullamore, Portlaoise, Naas, Dundrum. Put them in on shelves and I was watching them like a hawk. Started off in 10, then moved up to 20.”
In the meantime he won a branding competition for €150,000 worth of outdoor advertising – busses, trains, darts, billboards. Tesco then upped him to 70 stores with central billing and 14 pallets.
Upstairs in the pub was no longer fit for purpose.
“I partnered with a bakery in Drogheda that were making it all for. First of all I was producing so much that I got a lad in to make it for me. I had to sell it – and him keep making it.”
They had a food safety inspection but to bring it up to standard was going to take a big investment. So he teamed up with a bakery in Drogheda and then got distributors involved.
By now he was manufacturing, invoicing, distributing and selling. It was a constant challenge with constant pressure.
Now Paddy O’s Cereals (changed from Paddy O’s Granola initially) is well established but Paddy still sees it with a long journey ahead.
“I always had a vision of it being the biggest granola brand in the country,” he says. “We’re still not even close to it. Kelkins, Jordans are the big ones. When I started off there was about five granola brands – now there’s about 30.
“We’re trying to be biggest Granola brand in Ireland. Cereal market is worth €214m. We want to capture 3% of that. Goal in next couple of years is to get to €1m turnover. That would be fantastic. I would see that as a major milestone for the brand.It’s certainly not a quick process.
“The longer you’re in it, the more trust you build up. People will go with you quicker. They’ll see you as a serious body that can buy off sustainably and will buy off you long term. That is the major goal.
“I want to have a billboard of products. End of this year want least six products, three at the moment – going to double that.”
Like anything it’s not without its risks.
“Delisting. It has happened but you have to fight your corner. Could be out tomorrow. All the power is in their (the supermarkets) corner. When you’re small you’re weak.
“At the moment, we’re growing and it’s getting a bit easier. There were a few times where you were thinking what am I at, should I keep going.
“Every other day you’d be thinking of giving it up. But I wasn’t going to let that be the case. Had a vision for it and got a couple of consultants involved. As a start up, it’s very easy go out of business if you make wrong decisions.
“Worst part is the pressure, constant pressure. I’m getting better at managing that. Pressure is good. Luckily enough I quite enjoy it. Like the idea of a deadline, getting money in, getting people paid.
“You are going to be taken advantage of starting out. There’s no question. You know when someone is doing it as well. That’s the name of it. You figure it out yourself. I say I paid 50% too much for my raw material for about three years but you learn as you go.
“The recipe is always changing – always trying to get better. Trying to improve shelf life, crunch, freshness.”
Earlier this year he signed a big deal with the Dalata Hotel group (owners of the the Clayton and Maldron Hotels) to supply them with their porridge for their 40 hotels in Ireland. Dalata are the biggest hotel group in Ireland and the UK.
The manufacturers buy from Glanbia, oats milled in Portlaoise and grown locally.
Business is getting bigger and his brother Richard, an accountant, is coming on board as his financial director. His parents are great supports too. His mother will do tastings, his father a mentor figure.
He acknowledges that the O’Connell name was a help in the early days to get in certain doors but “the big buyers don’t care who you are”.
Yet it’s a family that has contributed an amount to the Irish food industry. Paddy O’s Cereals has carved out its own place in the market but Paddy himself will only be 33 this year.
Already he’s done a lot but his story – and his business – is still really only in the early days.
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