Irish Crisp Maker Cracks UK With Tesco Deal
Keogh’s Crisps has become the latest Irish company to make it on to the shelves of Tesco UK, opening up a potentially massive opportunity for the Dublin potato farmers. Keogh’s Farm has just agreed a deal with Tesco UK, which will see the family’s hand cooked artisan potato crisps go on sale in 255 Tesco stores throughout the UK. Keogh’s Farm currently employ 40 at its farm in Oldtown in North County Dublin.
“As a small, family owned business, this deal with Tesco UK opens a potentially massive opportunity for the business,” says Tom Keogh, managing director of Keogh’s Crisps. “Tesco Ireland has worked with us to get our brand to this stage in the UK. The deal has the potential to allow us to double our turnover in the UK quickly and opens up the chance to try additional markets in Europe where we don’t currently stock our products.”
During a visit to Tesco Ireland, Tesco plc CEO Philip Clarke sampled Keogh’s range of hand cooked artisan potato crisps. Tesco then worked with Keogh’s to get the firm a seasonal slot in the UK for St Patrick’s Day 2013.
John Paul O’Reilly, commercial director of Tesco Ireland, says: “Keogh’s is one of the great success stories of the Tesco-Bord Bia Supplier Development Programme. This is a platform that has worked very well to help companies like Glenilen Farm and Lir Chocolates in recent years to reach an international market. It is one of the ways Tesco is committed to supporting Irish suppliers.”
Keogh’s Farm is the only on-farm producers of hand cooked artisan potato crisps in Ireland and the only potato growers in the world who offer fresh potatoes and potato crisps from the same farm side by side on shelves. In 2011, the family came up with the idea of using their potatoes to create high quality crisps and the following year were on the shelves of Tesco Ireland.
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Pictured to mark the announcement of Keogh’s going on sale in 255 Tesco UK stores is Irish Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Tom Hayes TD with Tom Keogh from Keogh’s Crisps and John Paul O’Reilly, Commercial Director from Tesco Ireland.
