Bizstartup.ie - ENTREPRENEURS

Tom Kearney

Spice O’Life

Corkman Tom Kearney travelled the exotic historical spice routes of the East before coming home and setting up his own spice company Spice O’Life in Dunmanway.

He says he has always nurtured an ambition to work in the food-science business, having made up his mind as a child to be either a dairy scientist or a teacher.

Kearney went on to complete a food-science degree in University College Cork in 1990, and then worked for a number of years with Kerry Group before “winning” a green card and moving to Boston in the US.

Learning how to blend spices

It was here Kearney really learned about working with spices and creating spice blends.

“I worked for a company called Creative Seasonings, which was a really top-end custom blending spice company and there I gained a huge amount of experience.” However, when the company was taken over by a large conglomerate in 1997, Kearney was made redundant, and was also contractually obliged to stay out of the spice industry for two years.

He used this time wisely, taking the opportunity to retrace the steps of the historical spice route, which involved him travelling across much of south-east Asia.

After completing his travels, Kearney came back to Ireland with the idea of starting a spice company, but his efforts to gain funding from his local enterprise board failed – largely, he believes, because he didn’t get his idea across properly. “I think I failed to convey exactly what I do, and they didn’t quite get what I was about.”

Saving money to establish his own business

With no cash under his belt, Kearney decided to return to the US, where he spent the next two years timber framing, very much with a plan in mind.

“I managed to save US$50,000, and it was this money I used to establish the business,” he explains.

“In December 1999 I rented a house and licensed a laboratory at the back of it, and got the business going from there.”

At this stage the local enterprise board came on-board and it has played an important role in Spice O’ Life’s development ever since.

Soon Kearney was developing spice blends for corporate clients, and undertaking consultancy work. In 2002 he rented out a premises from Cork County Council, and kitted it out so it could be used as a production facility to produce both powder and liquid blends. (He has since bought the premises outright.) In the October of that year, the first load of product left the facility bound for a major grade-one catering client.

Steady growth pattern

“Since then, we have gone from a turnover of zero to year-on-year growth. Having said that we have worked very hard for this success and all the profits are ploughed back into the business.”

From just one employee (Kearney himself), Spice O’Life now employs eight people. This includes Kearney’s business partner, Denis O’Driscoll who has over 30 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical and food industries, and has a 20pc stake in the company.

A range comprising over 300 products

Unlike other food companies which might only have a handful of brands, Spice O’ Life has over 300 products, ranging from marinades, sauces and gravies to pancakes mixes, ethnic rice dishes, stuffing, bouillons and soups.

Kearney believes his company is succeeding in these troubled times due to a number of factors, not least hard work, but also because the business satisfies a niche.

“A lot of the clients we are dealing would not have the expertise or the research and development [R&D] facilities to develop and produce the customised (liquid and dry-blend) products they need, which is where we come in.”

The research and development process

Kearney says out of every 12 prototype products researched and developed, only one might make it into the final production stages, meaning there is a huge cost involved in research and his staff are trained to the highest level.

As is necessary when dealing with anything food related, microbiology and pasteurisation play a huge part in the company.

“The requirement is to guarantee uniformity and consistency in our products, which is what we have to achieve time and again – this is why our standards are so high.”

A five-year plan

For the next five years, Kearney has very specific plans for the company, which involve splitting the it into what he describes as “three prongs”. This will mean targeting three different categories of client: industrial (ie food-manufacturing companies); catering firms; and, finally, retail (supermarkets).

Launch of ‘Insanely Good’ products

This latter idea is certainly one of the most exciting things on Kearney’s agenda: 2010 will see the launch of ‘Insanely Good’ products – a range of sauces from Spice O’ Life which will be preservative-free and all natural. Bord Bia is helping Spice O’ Life with this launch into the retail end of the food business.

A Spice O’ Life range of marinades, which is currently available in a number of butchers in the south of the country, is also due to be rolled out nationwide.

Photo: Tom Kearney, founder, Spice O’ Life

This article first appeared in Owner Manager magazine