Siblings look to grow reach of Tullamore-based sustainable food business
by Graham Dockery
A company run by two siblings from Ballykeeran found a lucrative niche recycling spent grain into healthy food and ingredients. Now their Tullamore-based Lurgan Foods company is looking for additional funding to expand internationally.
Founded by Niamh and Ruairí Dooley in 2020, Lurgan Foods operates two brands – BiaSol and the Circular Food Co.
From humble beginnings in their home kitchen, the duo began sourcing grain from local breweries to produce baking mixes, and have since grown their range of products to include granola and protein bars.
The growth of craft brewing in Ireland produces some 172,000 tons of waste grain every year. For Niamh, who previously managed a sustainable restaurant in Vancouver, these leftovers represented a potential goldmine – once customers could be persuaded to try something made from second-hand ingredients.
"No-one had heard of brewer's grain being put on their plates," she told the Westmeath Independent.
"So we started off in farmers’ markets, and we let the customers taste it first before we told the story, and when they tried it they were amazed and they bought into the brand then."
The Circular Food Co’s baking mixes are currently stocked in Tesco and used in some of the supermarket’s breads. BiaSol’s oat bars are stocked in Aldi, Holland & Barrett, and SuperValu, and Niamh and Ruairí have swapped their kitchen for a fully-fitted manufacturing facility employing 10 staff.
The two entrepreneurs hail from Ballykeeran and initially looked for a site in Athlone, but found a former Carroll Cuisine plant in Tullamore to be the ideal location to scale up their business.
Niamh and Ruairí have already secured €500,000 in funding and are now looking for the same investment again. While Lurgan Foods is an Enterprise Ireland client, the majority of this funding will likely come from angel investors, Niamh explained.
With this inflow of cash, the siblings plan to grow the ingredients side of their business and sell Circular Food Co products to other manufacturers.
"It's all about helping them on their sustainability journey, but also to grow this whole circular food system we have going," she said.
Lurgan Foods plans to hire more staff, scale up production, and look into exporting abroad, she continued, adding that the company is also looking at developing new products, including food made from upcycled bread waste and fruit and veg waste.
By the end of the year, Niamh said she's hopeful she and her brother will have "launched new products under the BiaSol brand, we’ll be in all the major retailers, and we’ll have a number of other large bakeries using our grain and launching their own products as well."