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NewsQuickcrop gets into retail outlets
Quickcrop gets into retail outlets
26.07.2010
Two years after setting up as a web business, Sligo-based company Quickcrop has achieved its aim of getting into retail, with its products now listed in three lifestyle and garden centres in Ireland.
Andrew Davidson and Niall McAllister started the business together, providing ready-built vegetable beds for urban dwellers as well as instant gardens for people who just don't have the time or the knowledge. They will install and maintain the products if required.
The business partners came up with the idea after moving their families from an urban lifestyle to country living ten years ago.
They both have small farms established where they produce all their own fruit and vegetables and have some of their own livestock.
“We had to make a lot of mistakes along the way but eventually some years later we feel we are quite knowledgeable in food production,” they say.
“Having heard, ‘We’d love to grow our own but don’t know where to begin’ a few times to many, we set about creating Quickcrop.”
Garden in a Box
One of their most popular products is the ‘Garden in a Box’ which includes a tube with a mat of seeds rolled up that you just have to lay out within a frame, cover with compost and water, and your vegetables will grow.
They invested €25,000 in the business and turnover was €60,000 last year. The website gets 7,000 hits a month.
With the help of mentoring on the RTE programme Higher Ground, Davidson and McAllister managed to get their Garden in a Box product listed in The Orchard in Celbridge, Co Kildare; The Arboretum in Carlow; and Horkans in Castlebar, Co Mayo.
Photo: Niall McAllister and Andrew Davidson
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