Dublin 15 Jelly Beans wins national award

A Dublin 15 based sweet company has won the top SFA National Small Business Award 2008 at a reception in the Mansion House, hosted by the Small Firms Association.

Aran Candy, which trades as The Jellybean Factory, is based in the IDA Business & Technology Park on Snugborough Road. The company was established in 1998 by father and son Peter and Richard Cullen after they identified an opportunity in the European confectionery market for an American-style high quality jellybean.

The company now has offices in the Middle East, England and America and has grown its turnover from €300,000 in 1998 to €8m in 2008.

Creating their own gourmet jellybean recipes, Peter and Richard originally manufactured and packaged their product in the UK. In 2004, as the company grew in size, they were anxious to retain control over their production so they set up their own manufacturing facility in Blanchardstown.

Aran Candy is now among the largest producers of gourmet jellybeans worldwide. The company has between 10 to 15 core customers in Ireland, including Avoca and Tesco, and a further 120 customers outside the country.

In the UK alone, 15,000 retail outlets stock the Jellybean Factory brand and Aran Candy lists retail giants such as Wal-Mart USA, Julian Graves UK, and BP as customers.

Announcing the winner, Pat Crotty, SFA chairman said “Aran Candy has proved that by dedication to quality and focusing on the development of a core product, Irish manufacturing companies will continue to prosper, grow and diversify into new markets.

“Already a market leader in the UK this company is poised to also become market leader in the other markets it currently supplies throughout Europe, Scandinavia, the Middle East and the Southern Hemisphere,” he said.

Speaking after the ceremony, Peter Cullen, Managing Director of the company was questioned on what it was about his “Irish” jelly bean that had made it so successful. “The most significant difference in our product is the range and type of flavours we offer, together with the intesity of those flavours,” he said. “We also offer unusal flavours like mango, kiwi and even buttered popcorn.”

He was also upbeat about the future of the company despite the recent devaluation of the dollar and sterling. “The current change in currency exchange rates is hurting, but we just have to find ways to challenge that by diversifying into other EU markets,” he said. “We moved into Scandinavia very successfully last year and we hope to further expand those markets in the future.”

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