Ireland’s Mr Crumb is trying to change the perception of stuffing into more interesting, less shelf-stable, territory. But how do you grow a business associated with a small number of product lines, essentially stuffing and breadcrumbs? Andy Coyne talks to co-founder and director Jason Coyle about export opportunities and the appeal of the foodservice category.
just-food: Mr Crumb has been going for 24 years now, has an annual turnover of around GBP8m (US$10.3m) and can employ up to 130 people, depending on the time of year. But how did it all begin?
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Jason Coyle: “It’s a family business. It’s me and my father Bernard. He founded the business but I’ve been there from day one. Bernard was a salesman for a bread company and every Christmas people asked him if they could buy bread, coarse bread, that was slightly stale. They were using it to make Christmas puddings, stuffing and bread sauce. He saw a gap in the market and went back to his company with the idea but they didn’t see it as a viable business proposition. So he set up on his own in my mother’s kitchen and started selling it [breadcrumbs] in one pound bags to individuals and then into shops. He then won a deal with a supermarket and set up a manufacturing unit.
just-food: How did the move into stuffing come about?
Jason Coyle: Breadcrumbs was a very niche product so he decided to go up the value chain and started to make stuffing and puddings.
just-food: You are based in Westmeath which is quite rural. Was there anything unique about that place and Ireland in general that made this an obvious place to launch this product?
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By GlobalDataJason Coyle: In Ireland we have more of an agricultural culture in which people traditionally made their own stuffing. Its similar in the UK in the Midlands and the north whereas in the south they tend to go for the commercial offering.
just-food: What were the first steps of the Mr Crumb business and what were the teething problems?
Jason Coyle: We went back to the supermarket’s buyers and they agreed to take all six flavours of stuffing. The main test early on was cashflow and raising the money to set up a small unit. If we knew what we were getting into, all the barriers and the problems, we probably wouldn’t have done it. But you don’t know what you are going to encounter so you keep going.
just-food: What was your USP?
Jason Coyle: It’s in the chilled cabinet. We didn’t set out to create a premium product but we replicated what my granny made in our kitchen and you are always going to make the best product possible for your family.
just-food: Did you have any financial backing?
Jason Coyle: Enterprise Ireland [a government business support agency] assisted us to start up but apart from that it was self-funded.
just-food: Did you need outside help for marketing, branding, packaging, manufacturing?
“The negative of ‘guerilla marketing’ is that it attracts lots of sharks and we are still swimming with them”
Jason Coyle: We did it all ourselves. My interest was on the marketing side while my father’s was on the production side. When you’ve got no money you have to be more creative. In 2008-10 we won best small business in Ireland awards which was great PR for the company. But the other side of that was three or four other companies entered the market to compete against us, including multinationals. The negative of ‘guerilla marketing’ is that it attracts lots of sharks and we are still swimming with them.
just-food: How do you differentiate yourself from these competitors?
Jason Coyle: We know our product is higher quality and less processed. We are an artisan company. We use butter from grass-fed cows and add fresh herbs, for example. We are very batch-driven, largely because we had no experience in manufacturing.
just-food: How did you go about finding distribution for your products?
Jason Coyle: Our first distributor went bust a few weeks after we started using them and our second one went bust owing us a lot of money. That almost put our lights out. Things improved when we went into more mainstream retail.
just-food: How did you decide on your product’s price point?
Jason Coyle: Our view was always to create the best possible product and keep the costs low. It’s priced at GBP2.00 in the supermarkets, which is cheap for the product and that attracts consumers.
just-food: And then Mr Crumb expanded into the UK market.
Jason Coyle: Yes. stuffing and breadcrumbs are niche products. You can’t sell more to the same people so you have to sell to more people. It took us a long time to break into the UK mainstream retail market. About 12-15 years ago Waitrose gave us our first break and we are now also in Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Marks and Spencer. The breadcrumbs came before the stuffing in the UK.
just-food: You also provide products or contribute to products on a private-label basis.
Jason Coyle: Retailers might come to us and say they want to launch three flavours of topped chicken breast. Our development chef then works with the retail protein partner.
just-food: Mr Crumb is also exporting products to the US where you’ve just gained new listings from the likes of Giant Eagle and Acme following deals with Albertsons and SaveMart. Why there rather than Continental Europe, say?
Jason Coyle: Ireland and the UK and the US are one culture in many ways so the product we sell there is the same, whereas Europe has different products. The other problem there is that the UK and Ireland have high product manufacturing costs compared to Europe.
just-food: How did exporting to the US come about?
Jason Coyle: Back in 2014 a US publication toured Europe and did a feature on must-have products. Our stuffing was chosen as one of those. On the back of that we had interest from supermarkets there. We decided to try it and we are now 14 months into a three-year plan. It’s a difficult market to manage from here and it’s a substantial cost burn. In the US distribution is a problem as well. There are two or three major players in the market and you have to go through them. It’s certainly a challenging market for us.
just-food: Wouldn’t Australia and New Zealand also fit into your theory about a shared culture with regard to Irish and UK products?
Jason Coyle: Yes but I’ve never been there and it’s a long way away. The US is challenging enough. The ‘Atlantic bloc’ of the US, Ireland and the UK, as Churchill called it, makes sense to me.
just-food: Given the importance of the UK market to you is Brexit a concern?
Jason Coyle: Yes, Brexit would be worrying if there’s a hard Brexit. From my point of view it would be a very bad thing for the UK and Ireland to separate as it’s one market. But I don’t see there being a hard Brexit and there’s no point worrying about it.
just-food: Tell me about Mr Crumb’s product development plans.
Jason Coyle: We have launched a new range called The Invisble Chef which is targeted at the UK foodservice market. It’s food-to-go which is a growing area. It’s cook and serve muffins, burritos, panini and wraps. The products are delivered frozen ready for overnight defrosting. They then have a three-day chilled shelf-life and cook in a range of devices from microwaves to conventional ovens. This is a way for us to grow our business and develop in other areas. We’ve already done business with some supermarkets, for their own cafes, and football stadiums and we’re now listing with a couple of hotel chains, convenience chains and cafes.
just-food: What are the major challenges Mr Crumb faces?
“Because it’s hard to sell more stuffing we need to grow the business and develop in other areas”
Jason Coyle: Because it’s hard to sell more stuffing we need to grow the business and develop in other areas. A large part of our business is now private label. We work with people who bring in things like chicken, bread and rice and we put the product together and provide these on a private label basis to retailers and now also to foodservice.
It’s a question of diversifying and hedging our bets. In retail, it is difficult to move into other categories without significant investment. I feel sorry for the companies coming through now because the costs of entry are so high. Ninety five per cent of the companies you see see at food shows with great products will not make the breakthrough.
just-food: But perhaps they will be snapped up by a larger company if their products are good enough.
Jason Coyle: It’s difficult to get legally binding patents. Why would big companies want to buy something when they can just copy the product? There needs to be an industry-wide look at how we bring companies through. It’s not good for the industry when a small number of companies dominate the market and retailers are dependent on them.
just-food: What’s next for Mr Crumb?
Jason Coyle: We have already developed gluten-free and vegan stuffing to meet demand and these are high-growth products for us. The challenge for us is to be a branded company, a marketer and a manufacturer all at the same time. Manufacturing takes up a lot of your time. Recalls are costly so there needs to be a lot of focus and attention to detail in manufacturing to avoid them. Marketing and manufacturing are two different businesses. We see ourselves as a manufacturer.
