Who remembers the Great Recession of 2008? We certainly do as this was what gave us the impetus to ramp up our efforts to work with fellow Artisan Irish Food producers and start to look at how we can better work together to increase our distribution networks, work together on sales and help reduce our carbon footprints (feetprint??) by not all sending vans to the same customers every week. At this point it was all wholesale deliveries.
At the time we were very much trading as Wild Orchard. (We established Craft Food Traders as a separate sales & distribution business in 2018) and initial conversations went along the lines of making deliveries on each other's behalf; i.e. Wild Orchard makes Clintons Crisps delivery and they make ours.
It soon became clear that this would work much better if we, Wild Orchard,actually took ownership of the whole process and the products. That's what sowed the seeds for the creation of Craft Food Traders. Our initial tagline being "Food Service and Specialty Retail all over Ireland". This is when we became dedicated to creating a great customer experience from order to delivery.
Next logical step of course was to offer this service and all our great products straight to the consumer. Admittedly Covid-19 has pushed this process along but now that we are here we love the direct contact we now have with the final users of our great products. So, on to our those products and their great producers. Legends of the Irish Food Industry one and all.
Jo's Absolute Nutrition: Joanne and James have achieved so much in such a short space of time. They have created a great range of healthy snacks suitable for family and athlete alike.
Berna's Dressings: Relatively new friend, Berna's delicious dressings have proved popular even now, in the depths of winter.
Blackcastle Drinks: Unique Irish Craft Soda (Lemonades).
Blendi Beans is a unique high protein vegetable snack developed by Yvonne Dolan and her son Shane.
Bubba's Sweet Chilli Jammin is another new product to the market developed by the Hanley family of the East Coat Lobster Company.
Clare Tait has managed to create great tasting chocolate which is non-dairy. Nice!
Martin Clinton grows the spuds and Sean makes the crisps. Genuine farm to table operation.
Hassetts from Carrigaline, Co. Cork bake exceptionally good quality biscuits and crackers.
The Brodericks are by now famous in Ireland for their great range of confectionery. We love to stock the Ina's GF range.
Our neighbors and friends here in County Limerick, Mike and Denis Sutton have built a state-of-the-art water bottling plant in Ballyneety.
Fiona Keane has been working really hard to establish this great brand here in Ireland. A firm favourite with active folk.
Caroline & Joe Rigney run a beautiful free range farm in Co. Limerick and are best know for their excellent free range pork and beef. Caroline also produces some excellent granola.
Synerchi Kombucha are now long term suppliers and constantly adding their great range of hralthy drinks produced in Donegal.
Possibly our longest standing supplier. Fantastic people and always a lovely place to visit.
Of course our sister company Wild Orchard is a firm favourite with our customers and a great source of natural, healthy drinks.
