We’re featured in The Sunday Business Post
July 12 2009 at 9:53 pm
Sunday, July 12, 2009 By Emma Kennedy
‘I felt food in Ireland was homogenised and saw a definite opening in the market,” says Darren Grant, managing director of Ireland’s first organic supermarket.
His own experiences of shopping weekly at farmers’ markets and being unable to stock up on similar standard products during the week prompted him to leave his job with computer firm Dell and set up his organic supermarket to fill a market gap for foodies seeking consistent access to organic food.
Grant’s organic shop in Blackrock will celebrate its first birthday this week, having opened its doors on July 14 last year. A year on, and with an economy knee-deep in recession rhetoric, Grant is happy that his business is bucking the trend.
‘‘Our fruit and vegetable sales are up 75 per cent on early trading last year,” he says. While he attributes some of this to the natural growth in the business over time, he also sees it as testament to the resilience of the organic market. Recent figures from Bord Bia indicated that organic food sales grew by more than 11 per cent in the last year.
According to Bord Bia’s statistics, the largest area of growth within Irish organics has been the fresh produce market, which is now worth €48million annually. Grant’s experiences back up these statistics, with organic fruit and vegetables representing his biggest selling products.
Next most popular are chilled products, such as dairy and meat products. His customers are also partial to treats, with organic wine and chocolate selling well.
He sources more than 3,000 organic products from 117 suppliers. Where possible, his preference is for Irish food, in order to minimise the air miles that the food has to travel. ‘‘That way you eliminate the middle men and transport costs,” he says.
Aside from the focus on quality produce, Grant’s other main business objective is a reversion to shopping standards of days gone by.
His team of six staff acknowledge regular customers by name and have an in-depth knowledge of food and wine.
Two of his six staff have qualifications in nutrition, while the rest have a passion for food. ‘‘I suppose it’s about bringing old-fashioned values back,” he says.
While a traditional shopkeeper and client model is important to Grant, he also has his finger on the pulse of modern retails trends. A few weeks ago he launched an online store at www.organic supermarket.ie, and provides next-day delivery to all 32 counties. So far, about half of the supermarket’s products are available online. The site is receiving about 250 visitors a day.
He hopes to open a second shop in Dublin before Christmas.
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