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Elaine Lavery (left) and Hannah O'Reilly

These young food entrepreneurs want to change how you think about butter

Meet the brains behind one of the Irish food startups to taste success through the Food Academy programme.

ELAINE LAVERY AND best friend Hannah O’Reilly want to change the way you think about butter.

“People see butter as something they put on their bread, but it is a great carrier of flavours,” Lavery said.

In barely more than a year, the pair, who met while studying business and commerce at UCD, have gone from tinkering in the kitchen to a fast-growing food enterprise with over 50 stockists and a weekly turnover in the thousands of euro.

The idea for their product, Improper Butter, came during Lavery’s post-college stint working as a chalet chef in France.

“I didn’t have any qualifications to cook but it was what I loved,” she told TheJournal.ie.

To maximise her time on the ski slopes, Lavery started pre-preparing flavoured butters she could add to meat or vegetable dishes when she had to whip something up quickly for guests.

After returning home, she combined her culinary nous with O’Reilly’s business brain to form their company, which started selling handmade, flavoured butters at local markets.

At the start it was very much trial and error; the big food companies have huge product-development budgets – as a small company you don’t have that finance behind you. Plus we didn’t have the expertise.”

From 20 to 2000 sales a week

But through a small Enterprise Ireland grant the two 25-year-olds were able to get some advice from food technologists about increasing the scale of their production and the brand’s reach.

IMG_4990 In case you're wondering, this is what Improper Butter looks like

The next breakthrough came with the Food Academy scheme, a programme put together by Bord Bia, SuperValu and the Local Enterprise Office network.

The scheme connects startup food producers with experts in marketing, business building and distribution to help budding entrepreneurs grow their operations – as well as providing guaranteed shelf space from the supermarket chain.

From one outlet in Blackrock, the pair have expanded their reach into about 30 SuperValu-branded and affiliated stores, as well as specialist shops across Dublin and across 10 counties.

A year ago the company was selling only about 20 sticks of its butter a week – but now, Lavery said, that figure is more like 2000.

They also made it onto the Dragons Den TV show, where they struck a deal with dragons Ramona Nicholas and Eamonn Quinn – in return for an initial 30% stake in their business.

bankofirelandgroup / YouTube

What now?

“The next stage will be more of the consultation process and growing as a business,” Lavery said.

Because we have been able to supply a number of stores quite quickly with this programme we want to add new product lines, which will just be about me playing around in the kitchen and trying recipes, going back to scratch, and then doing some market research.”

The company sources butter from Irish producers then adds its own herbs and flavourings, and in the future Lavery said they wanted to look at how they could use technology to improve production.

Graduation Day

Today the pair’s business was among 30 to graduate into the next stage of the food-enterprise scheme – the Food Academy Advance program.

They will join food startups from around the country in further ramping up their operations with more than 8 in 10 of the operations planning to hire staff to grow over the next year.

Some of the other businesses to make the grade include DeRoiste Puddings, from Co Cork, Patels Authentic Spices, from Dublin, and Wild About Foods, from Co Wexford.

Over 260 startup food businesses have been through the Food Academy program so far.

READ: OK, so there ARE a few Irish brands out there that are still Irish. At least, mostly Irish… >

READ: How two students saved enough food for 325,000 meals from the rubbish >

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14 Comments
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    Mute dr_samoflange
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    Jan 19th 2014, 8:59 AM

    I so would

    112
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    Mute B9xiRspG
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    Jan 19th 2014, 9:11 AM

    Yep thinking the same, just wonder what the girlfriend looks like……

    57
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    Mute B9xiRspG
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    Jan 19th 2014, 9:10 AM

    The guy must be hang like a donkey because it sure isn’t his face they are going for……..

    89
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    Mute D
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    Jan 19th 2014, 9:50 AM

    Or his dyed head.

    37
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    Mute CaliforniaWeed
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    Jan 19th 2014, 4:54 PM

    or his lifts.

    Mao: “I want to know your secret”
    Kissinger: “My secret, Mr President?”
    Mao: “How a fat man gets so many girls?”
    Kissinger: “Power, Mr. Chairman, is the ultimate aphrodisiac.”
    -Stone’s Nixon(1995)

    13
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    Mute David Webb
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    Jan 19th 2014, 7:41 AM

    Why is this news?

    We all already know politicians have no integrity, no sense of honesty or even loyalty.

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    Mute susanna smyth
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    Jan 19th 2014, 8:18 AM

    Riveting stuff ! Just joking

    27
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    Mute Jack Jones
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    Jan 19th 2014, 5:39 PM

    Sexy biatch tbf

    1
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    Mute Tara Murphy
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    Jan 19th 2014, 10:08 AM

    A standing Mickey has no conscience…

    56
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    Mute Adam King
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    Jan 19th 2014, 10:59 AM

    Classy bird

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    Mute Tara Murphy
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    Jan 19th 2014, 11:51 AM

    Why thank you kind sir,one tries one’s best.

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    Mute CaliforniaWeed
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    Jan 19th 2014, 4:50 PM

    and spread legs, apparently to feminists, have no blame.
    Maybe Ms Trierweiler should ask the only class act in this sorry tale, Segolene Royal for advice.

    6
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    Mute Róisín Loughrey
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    Jan 19th 2014, 9:11 AM

    How is this any of our business and since when is Closer magazine a valid source of information? I’m seriously concerned about the integrity of the Irish media at the moment.

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    Mute CaliforniaWeed
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    Jan 19th 2014, 5:04 PM

    The role of the media is to report the news.
    The reader then decides if it is any of their business or not.
    Ms Trierweiler is on the French taxpayer dime and is/was designated First lady of France.

    3
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    Mute Róisín Loughrey
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    Jan 19th 2014, 5:22 PM

    Ah now California don’t be so naive, you really think the media is that impartial? Come on now…

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    Mute CaliforniaWeed
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    Jan 19th 2014, 5:33 PM

    About as impartial as you
    I will decide what is newsworthy for me.
    if you don’t want to read about it, then don’t click on the link but you don’t get to decide what others can read.

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    Mute Róisín Loughrey
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    Jan 19th 2014, 5:52 PM

    Don’t be ridiculous I’m not deciding what others can read, I’m merely stating that its fodder news and as I said it makes me doubt the integrity of our media, especially when there is a lot not being reported on that, to me, is much more important.. This is a bigger issue than Hollande and his affairs and if you don’t see that well there’s not much I can do about it.

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    Mute CaliforniaWeed
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    Jan 19th 2014, 6:03 PM

    Fodder news?
    The integrity of a leader? A cheat? Someone who leaves the mother of his three children?
    The media’s integrity is always doubted when it’s a story you don’t like to hear or a belief you had, gets challenged.
    You are also describing a false choice. Stories that matter(subjective) are reported. The reporting of one does not stop the reporting of another.

    “bigger issue than Hollande and his affairs ”
    ‘Their’ affairs. There was two in the bed.

    “if you don’t see that well there’s not much I can do about it.”
    Oh please, Bill Burr’s “If you can’t do the math on that…”

    3
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    Mute Róisín Loughrey
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    Jan 19th 2014, 7:16 PM

    “Stories that matter are reported.” That’s the most naive statement about the media I’ve ever heard. Stories that sell are reported. Seriously California…

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    Mute CaliforniaWeed
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    Jan 19th 2014, 11:07 PM

    You are through the looking glass, Rosy.
    Nice tin hat btw.

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    Mute Declan Byrne
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    Jan 19th 2014, 9:34 AM

    Your wan is a bit of a ride.

    52
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    Mute Michael Garett
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    Jan 19th 2014, 9:33 AM

    1 woman should be more than enough for any man. He must be a sucker for punishment.

    47
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    Mute Fart Smeller
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    Jan 19th 2014, 10:06 AM

    I’ll bang her if he doesn’t want to.

    29
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    Mute John Loughran
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    Jan 19th 2014, 9:50 AM

    Hollande only has one mistress. We are all being screwed by Irish Politicians!

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    Mute Joey Joe Joe
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    Jan 19th 2014, 10:06 AM

    What is it that makes Hollande irresistible?

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    Mute Tara Murphy
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    Jan 19th 2014, 10:15 AM

    I’m gonna guess his millions… ;)

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    Mute Joey Joe Joe
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    Jan 19th 2014, 9:26 PM

    He isn’t a millionaire though.

    He’s a career politician & though comfortable, he’s not super rich.

    I guess he has a tongue that never tires.

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    Mute the flying picket
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    Jan 19th 2014, 9:43 AM

    Sure all she would have to do is talk french !

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    Mute yoman
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    Jan 19th 2014, 11:05 AM

    Speak…

    7
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    Mute Myles Duffy
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    Jan 19th 2014, 10:11 AM

    If Hollande is as dedicated to the wellbeing of the citizens of France, as he is to fulfilling his personal sexual appetite on a a-la-carte basis, does he turn up in a motor cycle helmet to screw them too?

    17
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    Mute Lorraine Mc Grath
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    Jan 19th 2014, 9:36 AM

    Pig

    16
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    Mute Fart Smeller
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    Jan 19th 2014, 10:35 AM

    Did you just walk past a mirror?

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    Mute CaliforniaWeed
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    Jan 19th 2014, 4:57 PM

    Harsh. Trierweiler is not that bad.

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    Mute Drew Clarke
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    Jan 19th 2014, 3:52 PM

    The French don’t care what others get up to in their personal lives. Nor do I.

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    Mute CaliforniaWeed
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    Jan 19th 2014, 4:58 PM

    you clicked on a linked to a story and commented.
    You care, you simply don’t like the fact that you do.

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    Mute Drew Clarke
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    Jan 20th 2014, 12:23 AM

    No. I don’t care and I clicked on it so as to post what I did.

    Would you like my browser history too? There’s plenty of links in there I don’t care about.

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    Mute Edel Mooney
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    Jan 20th 2014, 4:29 AM

    Sarcozy is behind all this

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    Mute Just4 TheJournal
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    Jan 20th 2014, 12:20 AM

    I thought the French were all liberal and open minded to the extent that affairs are mandatory. Wouldnt have expected the wife to get in a tizzy over it, sure its normal there.

    1
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