Irish crisps break into US market

The potato industry is always trying to fight the decline in potato consumption. The Keogh family ha…

The potato industry is always trying to fight the decline in potato consumption. The Keogh family has been farming in Westpalstown in County Dublin for 200 years. The family has grown different produce such as tomatoes, cucumber, broccoli, cabbage and onions, however over the last 20 years they have specialised in growing potatoes.

Brothers Peter and Tony, with their sons Tom, Ross and Derek have led the business into a multimillion Euro company by exporting products all over the world. "We grow 400 acres and we have a network of 25 growers" all over Ireland said Tom.

"From 2007-2008 we started to market potatoes - this was unheard of before...We launched a brand where we tried to market the family and the product" said Tom. In 2010 the business changed its name from 'Peter Keogh & Sons' to 'Keogh's', and all the products have bright modern packaging with pictures of the family.

After a few years, the family decided to venture into the market of crisps. However, this was accidental. They originally wanted to export fresh potatoes to the US, but they discovered they would not be able to send potatoes to the US, so they decided to cook them and turn them into crisps.

Tom started travelling to different countries to find out how to make the best crisps. This took about 4 years and in November 2011 the business launched. But at first the crisps didn't sell. A local supermarket took some of the crisps on and soon the family secured a listing with a national seller.

The family now exports crisps in flavours such as Roast Beef & Irish Stout, and Dubliner Irish Cheese & Onion to 14 different countries and the company is worth 4.5 million Euro.

The two varieties of potatoes used for the crisps are Lady Rosetta and Lady Claire. These potatoes have dry matter content and are good for the use of crisps. "These potatoes are about 27% dry matter which is good for me because when you are making crisps you are taking the moisture out of the potato...The higher the dry matter content, the less oil the crisps absorbs during the cooking process' said Tom.

The company is producing around 1.5 tonnes of product everyday. There are seven different flavours in 50g, 125g and multi pack offerings.