Anyone can distribute a thousand brands. You say yes to everything and hope. We say no a lot, because a shelf is only as good as the weakest thing on it. What’s left is a collection we’re properly proud of: brands we’d put in our own baskets, from small makers you haven’t heard of yet to names the whole world knows.
Choosing a brand is the easy bit. The real work starts the day after. We ring the buyers. We make the case. We find the retailers who’ll get it straight away and the ones who need a little persuading. We watch what sells, and what’s about to. When something needs fixing, we fix it. It’s a lot of effort. Mostly it’s just caring, with a diary.
We know the Irish grocery sector at every level, from the independent deli to the national account. That matters, because the two don’t work the same way. A small grocer wants to be surprised. A buyer at a multiple wants to know it’ll sell. We understand both, and we know which brand belongs where.
Over fifty years ago, Jim Jamison looked at the grocery trade in Northern Ireland and saw room for something more. A market built on the traditional had space in it for speciality, so he went and found it.
His son, Peter, runs the business now. The idea hasn’t moved an inch. If anything it’s got hungrier.
We don’t dwell on the history, because the history isn’t the point. It’s just why we know the trade as well as we do. The point is the next brand, the next category, and the next shelf ready for something different.
