Glanbia rescues TV Apprentice’s troubled food business
McEvoy’s food manufacturing business has now exited examinership (court protection) as a subsidiary of Glanbia Consumer Foods.
Jane and her husband, Gary will continue to run the company under its existing name McEvoy Family Foods.
Jane McEvoy told FoodManufacture.co.uk: “I’m delighted that Glanbia are backing us. It was very stressful over the summer being in examination, because we didn’t know what was going to happen to our business so we’re really relieved.”
Collum Joseph, international business development director, Glanbia Consumer Foods, told FoodManufacture.co.uk: “We’re focusing our growth on family artisan businesses that bring a unique proposition to our marketplace. We wanted to invest in this business and its owners.”
Banking crisis
In some ways McEvoy Family Foods was a victim of its own success, as it won significant new contracts, which it then struggled to fulfil without sufficient backing from the banks.
“It’s really tough for any business in Ireland at the moment,” saidMcEvoy. “Companies can’t expand because they can’t get the funding. It’s very difficult to progress because you need to buy raw materials to meet the contracts.”
Joseph said: “It’s down to timing. When you win a new contract you have to buy a lot of new product up front and you need cash flow to do that.”
Bad debt, totalling £162,000 (€200,000) was also crippling the company.
“It’s like a domino effect,” said McEvoy. “One person can’t pay their debtor, so the next person then can’t pay theirs.”
In addition to the financial support, McEvoy welcomed the additional resources and expertise that Glanbia could offer her business.
She said: “They have experts in every area of food, which is key. It adds structure to our business, which Gary and I have been longing for.”
The future now looks bright for McEvoy, who has many ideas for new product lines. “We’re going to be doing an awful lot of new product development in the next six months, so it’s really exciting to have such a big team behind us now,” she said.
“We’re extremely ambitious and have no limits in terms of coming up with new products, which we will take to market.”
‘I learnt nothing from Lord Sugar’
Despite the TV show opening doors for McEvoy, she insisted that she learnt nothing from appearing on The Apprentice: “I’m happy to say that I learnt absolutely nothing from being on the show. It really isn’t the reality of running a business.”
However, the show has opened doors for her food manufacturing company, including securing a meeting with online retailer Ocado.
She said: “If I ring someone in the UK now, it puts a face to a name. When I approached the Ocado buyer, for example, he knew who I was. But I got the deal in the end because he wanted the product.”
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McEvoy in her own words
- “I’m happy to say that I learnt absolutely nothing from being on the show. It really isn’t the reality of running a business.”
- “I don't care what the Apprentice viewers thought of me: good or bad. All I've ever cared about is what the immediate people around me think.”
- “The Apprentice was great exposure. All publicity is good publicity and I have a tough enough skin to take the bad.”
- “Appearing on the show was amazing, and I met some great people through it. The aftershow You're Fired! was a brilliant experience and I met the editor of Vogue in the BBC studios.”
- “The Irish banks will offer money to those who don't need it but not to those who do. It's strangling business.”
- “Everything is ambient in baby food. I don't know why that is. We eat fresh food so why wouldn't we give that to our babies? Harry's Little World is the face of fresh food for baby.”
- “We're extremely ambitious and have no limits in terms of coming up with new products to take to market. In fact, we almost have too many ideas. It will be good to have some structure.”
