Rosie & Jim, the award-winning breaded-chicken brand, has reached a milestone in its multimillion-euro expansion project at its factory in Dublin 12.
A new facility will increase the footprint by 70%, tripling production capacity and allowing the company to meet growing demand in both its domestic and export markets.
The family business, founded by Jimmy and Rosie McLoughlin in 1997, has built a solid network of foodservice and retail clients in Ireland, which, the team notes, was aided in no small part by the ‘game-changing’ decision to move to gluten-free products in 2015.
“Rosie and I started this business 27 years ago, when I was just 27 years old. We’ve learned a huge amount in that time and are delighted to be looking to the future with such optimism and a clear strategy for growth,” said Jimmy McLoughlin, managing director at Rosie & Jim.
“The Irish market continues to be hugely important to us, not least of which is our relationship with butcher shops nationwide, serviced through our network of regional distributors, which has been the backbone of our business since the beginning.”
McLoughlin added, ”Foodservice in Ireland is also a significant growth area, as the key players see the benefits our brand has to offer, including reduced food miles, when compared to breaded-chicken imports from South-East Asia, Brazil and China, which are commonplace in foodservice.”
Rosie & Jim’s range of frozen and chilled products are available from Tesco, Dunnes, SuperValu, Eurospar, Spar and Mace in Ireland.
The company, which employs 70 people in Ireland, has enjoyed significant growth in the UK, through a relationship with market leaders such as Costco Wholesale, and in Germany, with leading retailer Kaufland.
“The winning combination of taste, quality and clean-label credentials is certainly driving our growth, and I’m excited to lead our marketing team in bringing even more consumers to the Rosie & Jim brand during this exciting period of expansion,” Rosie McLoughlin, brand manager.
