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Mr Crumb - The Interview - First for gourmet stuffing and more

Founded in 1996, chilled speciality food manufacturer Mr Crumb is famous in its native Ireland for its award-winning products, socially responsible business practices and its 'cheeky' attitude. It's a blend that makes the company stand out and saw Mr Crumb recognised in 2005 as Ireland's Best Business by the country's Small Firms Association and voted one to watch by no less an expert on entrepreneurship than Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary. Having secured Irish listings in Tesco, Dunnes Stores, Musgrave and Superquinn, Mr Crumb has recently invested Û6 million in a facility expansion project aimed at tackling the UK market, which has led to listings with Waitrose, Budgens and Nisa. The Grocery Trader spoke to Mr Crumb's UK Operations Director, Jason Coyle.

The Grocery Trader - Jason, who originally set up Mr Crumb?
My dad, Bernard Coyle, who was working as a salesperson for a major bakery, spotted a gap in the market for fresh breadcrumbs as an ingredient in fresh stuffing, puddings and bread sauce.

GT - How was the company financed?
With difficulty: identifying the gap was the easy bit, getting people to back the project was another matter. Initial assistance came from the County Enterprise Board, which amounted to around 11% of the capital. We were eventually able to borrow Û634,872, which built the 6,000 sq ft plant. The original Mr Crumb was a smaller operation run by Bernard and my mother Patricia, who gave up her steady job in teaching to take part in the gamble.

GT - Has Mr Crumb always been slightly unconventional?
We definitely have a cheekier attitude than most. Our views and sense of humour have often been described as "quirky," and it is crucial in this business to keep things in perspective. In encouraging people to incorporate the products into their everyday lives, it's always been important to be a people-facing company, and not a faceless corporation. For this reason, we can launch a national competition inviting people to say who they would like to 'Get Stuffed,' and get away with it. We look at fun ways to create a dialogue between the company and its customers.

GT - Where is your Irish operation based?
The company is based in Finea, near Mullingar in County Westmeath. It's a small village in rural Ireland, an area that has historically suffered from a lack of investment, and one of only three zones in the country with a falling population.

GT - Why did you set up there?
To support our own village and local community; business investment can help regenerate an area. It would have been quicker and easier to move into a ready-to-go factory, rather than acquiring sites in Finea, but social responsibility was always a big part of the plan.

GT - How do you support your staff?
As well as creating employment, we have also implemented several progressive work practices. Running a business in a small community means we have a diverse workforce. Many of our employees are farmers' wives, so flexitime and job-share options are essential. Personal and work development is also important: as well as running an internal skills training scheme in conjunction with the Accel program, we have also invested in a fully equipped gym on site, with free personal training and membership.

GT - How important is Corporate Social Responsibility?
We invest a percentage of profits in varying CSR initiatives. We have just finished a programme with local primary schools to encourage children to learn to cook and embrace healthy eating. As part of this we ran a competition, where the winning school won a trip to the theatre and restaurant in Dublin and £1,000 worth of cookery equipment for their school.

GT - Aside from operating a socially responsible business model, what is Mr Crumb's key motivation?
Creating a range of high quality products we are proud of; that use natural, wholesome ingredients; and have a large pinch of convenience thrown in.

GT - Why did you move from the idea of manufacturing breadcrumbs to producing fresh stuffing?
Our long-term aim was to produce ready-made stuffing. After two years of producing fresh breadcrumbs, we decided to move up the value chain and make a range of breadcrumb-based products ourselves, the first of which was fresh stuffing.

GT - Was there already a market for stuffing when you started?
When Mr. Crumb started out, the stuffing market in Ireland was the same as in the UK today: a commodity product split between a declining ambient market and a very seasonal chilled market, rather than being positioned as an everyday meal accompaniment as it is in both Ireland and the US. What we have succeeded in doing is reinventing stuffing with fresh, high quality ingredients and, by pre-cooking it, making it a convenient proposition. We have also managed to change its usage occasion, and have generated strong year-round sales across all the Irish multiples.

GT - So, it's not just an accompaniment to roast dinner?
No, gourmet stuffing is the perfect savoury accompaniment to any meal. It can be served with meat, poultry or fish, stuffed in vegetables like peppers or mushrooms or used as a sandwich filler.

GT - Do you solely focus on the retail sector?
We have the advantage of servicing food processing, foodservice and retail sectors. Mr Crumb products are currently in the cabinets of every UK retailer as ingredients in or on value added meat and poultry. Foodservice gives us a lot of scope in terms of blue-sky NPD, which can translate into retail. We currently produce 350 stuffing varieties and offer a bespoke stuffing service, where we can develop recipes to order. We are also able to produce stuffing in any format: loose, shaped, chilled or frozen.

GT - How many retail varieties are there?
There are twelve, including traditional "Sage and Onion" stuffing, which continues to be the best seller.

GT - How is the stuffing made? Why is it better than dried alternatives?
All our products are hand-cooked in a small-scale kitchen environment by a team of trained chefs. We want to replicate the kind of stuffing you might make at home. Simple things like sautŽing our fresh onions in real Irish butter give it a real homemade taste. We also cook in small batches of up to 300kg, which ensures we maintain the correct intensity of flavour. It's impossible to deliver the same eating quality using dried ingredients. It's also about convenience; all the stuffing comes ready to serve in its own tray and can be heated in 2Z\x minutes in the microwave or 13 minutes in the oven.

GT - You proclaim yourselves to be 'Experts in Stuffinology.' What's the next big thing in stuffing?
With increased consumer and media interest in 'superfoods,' we are looking to launch a 'functional' stuffing, targeting the growing number of health conscious consumers. Having already changed the eating occasion, we hope to position the stuffing as an obvious addition to a meal: as well as a number of servings of vegetables, consumers should also opt for a portion of stuffing.

GT - Besides stuffing, what other products are 'Crumb' based?
We also manufacture a range of press-on crust toppings and melts, which are a blend of fresh breadcrumbs, cheese and natural flavourings, developed to liven up plain fish, meat and vegetables. Our original product, 200g bags of fresh White, Wholemeal and Organic breadcrumbs continue to sell huge volumes.

GT - Who buys fresh breadcrumbs?
Anyone who cooks! A huge number of recipes call for fresh breadcrumbs and often, having a convenient option is the difference in deciding to make a recipe or not. Last Christmas, several UK dedicated food titles listed them in their 'Christmas Essential' shopping sections, which prompted Waitrose to give them a year-round listing.

GT - Are there any other products in the range?
Yes, we have launched a sub-brand called 'Chef's Speciality,' which includes products like luxury dessert puddings and sweet filled crepes, and has allowed us to widen our portfolio in chilled, speciality food. We are looking to extend this range further in 2007.

GT - How does the Toscano's range fit into your product portfolio?
The decision to acquire Toscano's which is a range of premium hand-topped Crostinis and filled Baguettes, was made largely on the fact that it would extend our core business and broaden the scope of our fresh, chilled offering. We also carried out research, which showed that there were two areas of growth for the speciality bread market: breads that were being eaten as a stand-alone snack or appetiser and breads that could be served as a meal accompaniment. The range targets both areas.

GT - What awards have you won for your products and company?
We have won about 25 international awards over the years, including the "Best Irish Business," "Irish Speciality Product of the Year" and several UK Great Taste Awards: Gold Medal (Meat based - Lamb and Sage Stuffing) and Gold Medal (Vegetarian based - Apricot & Chilli Stuffing.)

GT - How big is Mr Crumb's turnover in Ireland? How fast are you growing?
Our turnover is around £6m, and we are achieving 25% annual growth. We have a 70% share of the Irish market for premium quality stuffing.

GT - How many staff do you employ?
We currently have 55 full-time employees, including 17 people in our management, NPD and R&D teams. We have just extended our NPD department by taking on three additional product technologists.

GT - How important is the 'Irish-ness' of your products?
It's important in the sense that the products should reflect what Ireland is renowned for internationally; real food made by real people using good quality, natural ingredients. In beginning to tackle the UK market, we have welcomed support from the Irish Food Agency, Bord Bia and are participating at the Irish Speciality Food & Drink Market in Covent Garden, mid-March.

GT - What proportion of your turnover is export?
Export currently represents 20% of our turnover and growing.

GT - What prompted your decision to move to the UK?
As a company, we felt it was important to establish a permanent base in Greater London to properly co-ordinate our UK operations. It's important to be close to both consumers and our retail customers.
Having succeeded in Ireland, where we have experienced double-digit year-on-year growth, and turned a declining stuffing market into a dynamic growth category, the possibilities presented by the UK for a company such as Mr. Crumb are seemingly endless.
We have also carried out extensive UK consumer research, which suggests 45.4% of UK consumers would regularly purchase a pre-cooked stuffing product throughout the year, and are more than twice as likely to use our stuffing as a meal accompaniment than purely as a stuffing.
UK consumers also associate Ireland's food heritage with high quality natural ingredients and are willing to pay a premium for more unusual ingredients, a real incentive for us and our retail partners.

GT - How will the UK sales operation work?
We have set up a UK office in South London, which will service the multiples, independents and food service outlets. As we secure additional listings, we will expand the UK team to replicate the Irish operation. The aim is to have several regional hubs with a sales, marketing and NPD presence, and longer term, to set up a production facility here.

GT - Who handles your supply chain to the UK?
We have a distribution partnership with a blue chip UK manufacturer/distributor. We handle their distribution in Ireland, and they handle ours in the UK.

GT - What external factors do you see affecting demand for your products?
Consumers are moving increasingly towards less processed products made with fresh, identifiable ingredients, and there seems to be a whole category being created of "side dishes" purchased to accompany a protein. We need to change the notion among buyers that stuffing is a "seasonal only" product, and encourage them to extend their categories to include cooked stuffing.

GT - How do you think you will overcome these problems?
It is early days. By continuing to innovate, educate consumers about the provenance of our products and being seen as a socially responsible company, we hope buyers will realise that there is year-round demand in the UK, like in Ireland and the US. This year we have made a conscious decision to focus on C-stores and independents, which have more flexible buying categories. We've had great support from Nisa-Today's, and will be exhibiting at their Trade Exhibition in March.

GT - How are you planning to support your listings in the UK?
All lines will be supported with in-store sampling and promotional activity, consumer PR, select advertising and a 'Mr Crumb' coupon campaign.

GT - Finally, where do you see Mr Crumb going from here?
The sky's the limit. The year round cooked stuffing market offers huge room for expansion, and is an untapped £60 million category. It's just a case of retailers giving us the necessary listings, and we'll prove it as we have in Ireland! The UK market is our main target over the next 18 months, but we've also had enquiries from international retailers where the "meal accompaniment" category already exists.

Mr Crumb
Tel: 07092 885963
www.mrcrumb.co.uk
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