S

Brendan Allen Managing Director – Castlemine Farm

An Innovation journey

What is there to say?

S Who we were What we

are now The journey

Who were we

A carpenter A Marine Scientist

Farming in our DNA

What had we?

S A 250 acre beef and sheep farm

S Non profit organisation

S Semi supporting 2 families

What is it now?

S Castlemine Farm Ltd

We grow and source the best food for our customers and

surpass all competition by providing the best customer service

possible

What we do

Angus beef

Free range

pork

Lamb

Free range

bronze

turkeys

Sales channels

Restaurants

National products

Awards

S Bridgestone 2009 to 2014 and farmers of the year 2012

S Food writers Guild award

How did we create this?

SWhat is our

innovation?????

Channels + Sales +

Marketing

Our motivation

SChange the way a modern Irish

farm sells its products, add value

and shorten the supply chain

Starting up

S Testing the market - Our first shop - Bootstrapping

the business – finding customers

The challenges

S Knowledge – lots of mistakes made – knowledge led

support programmes would be much better than capital led.

S Cash-flow – bootstrapping is a tough route to take

S Complex product range

What’s required?

Passion

Resilience

Adaptability

Work rate

Belief

The value of hindsight

What would myself now say to me from 6 years ago?

S Find a simple scalable product and test the market

S Think bigger from the start (it’s tough set up something

small as big)

S Be open to opportunities sooner

S Find creditable mentors and listen to them

S Be prepared for a tough slog (there is no avoiding that)