FDBusiness.com

Irish entrepreneur Eamon Eastwood has secured a major coup for his Taste Ireland business, signing a deal with Autralian retail giant Coles to stock Irish products in 600 stores.

Coles supermarkets will have a new dedicated Irish section selling Tayto crisps, Barry’s Tea, Club Orange and other favourites.

The contract will represent retail turnover of more than €2 million in year one, and will see Taste Ireland turnover increase by 60 per cent.

“What started as a niche boutique style operation in 2004 has now flourished into a scalable and thriving enterprise. On the supply side we have worked hand in hand with the Irish manufactures who now see a potentially new market opening for them whilst on the demand side there is 600,000 Irish passport holders in Australia”, Mr Eastwood said.

In October 2011, Taste Ireland agreed a contract to supply Woolworths, which controls around 30 per cent of Australia’s supermarket business. This latest Coles deal will bring the number of Australian stores now stocking the company’s Irish food brands to 1,000.

Mr Eastwood was recently named by Enterprise Ireland as a ‘start-up ambassador’ for Australia, as part of a strategy to encourage overseas entrepreneurs to locate their export focused start-up businesses in Ireland.