19 year old school boy Shane Dolan from Rathmichael Co Dublin has recently secured a contract that will see his Blendi Snacks on the shelves of Avoca stores across Dublin.
Shane initially created the roasted beans and peas snack with the intention of selling his product at his school, St Andrews College in Booterstown, Dublin.
Shane's Mum, Yvonne, was working on her smoothie business at the time and had disregarded the ingredients as "they weren’t suitable" for her smoothie product.
Speaking with Checkout, Yvonne explained: "I had another food start-up at the time, importing dried fruit and vegetables to make ambient smoothies. 5kg of beans and peas came in from a supplier to try out in the smoothie mix but they did not work out, so I had disregarded them."
"Shane came across them and took them into school to snack on, as they taste and look like nuts (without allergens) so they were suitable for schools. After a few weeks he was making snack bags to bring in for his friends," she added.
Seeing the potential in her son's new snack creation, Yvonne joined the business to help Shane to "grow Blendi across international markets and expand into retail stores nationwide."
"During February Health Week, St Andrews College invited us in to do a tasting. It was then I saw how much all the kids liked the snack. I felt it was time to join Shane in his new company," she said.
Pandemic Impact
Blendi was due to launch into 144 Health stores throughout Ireland in March.
However, COVID-19 'changed everything' for the new business.
"We redirected our focus," Yvonne said, "we now supply Blendi though healthy snack boxes in UK, Germany & Spain."
She said: "We had an order of 14,000 units into a UK Vegan online supermarket this week."
Looking Ahead
Looking ahead Yvonne said that Blendi is planning to launch three new flavours in January 2021.
"Also, soon we are planning to start a new product development with Kerry Foods," she added.
Blendi Snacks are available in 35g Packets RRP: €1.95.
© 2020 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.
