Cork bakery for coeliacs raises seed funding of €175,000

24 May 2013

Shemas Eivers, Boole Investment Syndicate, and Denise O'Callaghan, managing director, Delicious

Delicous, a Cork-based bakery specialising in gluten-free products for coeliacs has raised €175,000 worth of investment from the Boole Investment Syndicate, the Halo Business Angel Network and Enterprise Ireland.

The company supplies gluten-free, dairy-free, yeast-free and wheat-free products to Dunnes Stores, Tesco, Supervalu, and Aer Lingus.

Delicious employs nine people in Cork and is creating a further nine jobs over the next two years as a result of the investment.

Cork BIC co-ordinated this investment round which saw Delicious raise the €175,000 from members of the Boole Investment Syndicate to support its product line and international expansion.

Denise O’Callaghan founded Delicious in 2007, following her father’s diagnosis of coeliac disease.

O’Callaghan started the business after she recognised there was a lack of good-tasting, gluten-free food products on the market, despite almost 50,000 people in Ireland alone diagnosed as having coeliac disease.

As a result, she made the decision to leave her job in Dublin and return to Cork, where she set up the Delicious bakery.

“We decided to establish the business in Cork as we have family support here but also, Cork has the highest concentration of coeliacs in Ireland,” O’Callaghan said.

“The business has gone from strength to strength and we are now in a situation where we have outgrown our current premises and need a larger bakery to facilitate our growth. We also want to look at new markets, such as the UK, which is why we sought investment at this time. The business planning advice we received from Cork BIC when preparing for the investment process was vital.

“The business angels in the Boole Syndicate have been incredible. They not only contributed funding but if I ever have an issue or a question, I know one of them will have the answer. They all bring something different to the table and their combined expertise and advice is helping us to confidently take the next step in our expansion,” O’Callaghan said.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com