In the beginning, we made the humble Dutch-style waffle. That was way back in 2001. Jim and I hand been both engrossed in our work and gainfully employed - in matters far removed from food. Jim managed the LEADER rural and community development programme in Co. Wicklow and I was self-employed as a development consultant invovled in preparing business plans and funding applications. Jim has a previous knowledge and involvement with Wicklow Waffles and unfortunately, it went bust in 2000. At that time, we were both in constant contact with entrepreneurs doing their thing, and somehow we had been bitten by the bug, the entrepreneurial bug. Nothing would do us but to start seeing the world with new eyes. Everything was an opportunity, an unrealised potential, just waiting for us to roll up our sleeves and get immersed.
It wasn’t long before opportunity presented itself and the liquidator advertised the waffle making equipment for sale. Well, we just couldn’t help ourselves, all that unrealised potential just waiting for us. We put a bid on the equipment and waited not believing that it would ever come our way. Jim, the youngest child and only boy in a family of three, could barely boil an egg. I was the youngest of seven and, while my mother was an excellent cook and made every effort to teach me how to cook, I never had the patience to get really stuck in. Basic dinners and the occasional apple tart or pavlova were about the height of it for me.
A day passed and what do you know, the waffle equipment was ours and we were to organise the full payment. The next six months went by quickly. We decided to rent the small industrial unit in Baltinglass where the previous business has operated from. This was already kitted out in food grade materials so it made sense. The LEADER II programme was in its final phase and its managing board persuaded Jim to stay on until more of the admin was put to bed. It was the end of October before Jim gave up his job. We had been making waffles at the weekend and approaching the market on a very haphazard way. We travelled to Holland to learn about the equipment and get recipes as we the equipment didn’t come with any recipes!
The next year involved test marketing, although in our naievity we actually thought we were up and away but it was just tiddly sales here and there. We wanted to diversify so that we could sell more to each shop and we decided to invest in chocolate equipment to ‘enrobe’ the waffles. A business plan and an Enterprise Board grant later, we were in the chocolate business and discovered the potential of this fine machine… the sky was the limit! Our focus at this time, however, was on developing new fillings for our beloved waffes. We had three lovely recipes developed but alas, the waffle filling depositor splattered our first trial batch all over the place as it couldn’t cope with the chocolate based consistency and had been designed for much thicker glucose syrup based fillings. Exasperated and frustrated, but very conscious of the high cost of this 25kg chocolate mix, we bought some jars in Dublin and re-melted it and jarred the stuff. Thankfully, the Tinahely show was coming up and many unsuspecting consumers might chance a jar at the right price.
In the days that followed this show, we got two very encouraging phone calls from people who had bought what we had now named ‘chocolate spread’. They wanted to know where they could buy it, it was great stuff. Three new products had been born!
We turned our attention in the following year to more biscuits and learning how to make chocolates. A lidquidation sale here, a networking contact there, and we had lots of equipment, moulds and recipes to work with. By 2005, we had decided to develop a new brand which would better sell the chocolates and came up with The Chocolate Garden of Ireland, reflecting our location in Ireland’s garden county, Wicklow. The rest, as they say, is history. Mind you, we’re still in the early stages of our history and feel like we’re just at another phase on our journey. Our new factory is set to open in late April, 2009… just after Easter. Aw shucks, you say, but I couldn’t get any more dynamite in the region to put under them.
