Podcast Ep 356: What began as a 25-seater café in Dun Laoghaire in 2006 has grown into a business with 7m customers employing 320 people in 11 locations. Founder Lorraine Heskin on how the business has become a major player in catering, events and sports nutrition.
“That growth trajectory was definitely not in my sight,” Lorraine Heskin told the ThinkBusiness Podcast as she recalled opening her first outlet in Dun Laoghaire 20 years ago.
Today that business Gourmet Food Parlour services more than seven million customers, generating more than €20 million in annual revenue, employs 320 people and operates across 11 locations across Ireland.
To add to unexpected turn of events for Heskin and her team, Gourmet Food Parlour is now a major player in catering, events and sports nutrition.
She spoke to the ThinkBusiness Podcast about entrepreneurship, resilience, leadership, scaling a business over two decades and what she thinks is next for one of Ireland’s best-known hospitality brands.
Cooking up a storm
Heskin returned to Ireland after working in the food industry in America where she picked up experience across manufacturing, sales and marketing without ever training as a chef. That mix of experiences and perspectives shaped the brand she wanted to build.
“I wanted to create a brand that was grassroots Irish-grown, farm to fork where possible, in terms of sourcing the ingredients locally always, and that has maintained our philosophy over the last 20 years. But back then, to create something that was just, when you walked in, you knew it was something special. It was a food business that had character, that still has character, that just created menus that was sourced from all the wonderful ingredients that you can get in Ireland, and that’s kind of how it started. And my ambition was to grow it, and I knew I wanted to grow it from the start.”
The early signs were promising. “On the first day that we opened, on 28 July, we opened at 1pm and there was a queue down the street, and I knew there was a demand for the brand.”
However, two years into trading the 2008 recession forced a rethink. Heskin extended opening hours, invested in the interiors, hired more qualified chefs and pushed harder into takeaway.
“I think the major standout for me at the very beginning was the recession in 2008, and we were two years in. Dún Laoghaire was open, we’d opened up a second place in Swords, and we were really trying to navigate that whole path, and it was very much a daytime business at the time. But then I could see that there was a nervousness in consumer spending, and people were not going out as often as they were, but yet we were paying the same rent, the same everything, the same costs across the board. So it made me have a look at the business and decide, okay, what kind of direction do we want to go with this now. And that’s where Gourmet Food Parlour became open seven days a week, and that’s where we put more of an emphasis on takeaway.
“We worked on the interior of the cafes at the time, turned them more into bistros, hired more qualified chefs, and then extended into, say, nighttime, opening for themed nights maybe every Friday or once a month, and live music, and just started testing the waters with different types of menus, which is really exciting.”
Another pillar of the business to emerge was a catering division that began with a single phone call that was to change the trajectory of the whole business.
“They asked me would I be interested in looking after a sports team for some of the younger squads for travel packs, and I said absolutely, of course we can, and that’s how we kind of started the whole catering division. And catering for corporate had started from the day we opened, but it developed into something more. But that whole sports side was not something that I felt, oh, we’re going to specialise in sports. But we have, as a result of that phone call, and that got us the Dublin GAA gig many, many years ago, and we’re still so proudly working with Dublin GAA all those years since.”
Expanding the business
A new catering division opened in Galway just over a year ago and Heskin says the sports nutrition side of the business, with dedicated account managers overseeing menus and macros for individual athletes is a priority for expansion.
Being open to new possibilities is the hallmark of Gourmet Food Parlour’s business model.
“Nobody ever said no, we can’t do that, or if we didn’t think we were going to be good enough for it, then we would politely decline. But it was something we were always very open as a team to, new ways of doing things, new possibilities, new opportunities, and everybody was on that journey with us, and that’s something that I take with great pride.
“20 years later, everybody is still the same, everybody wants to grow this brand, they’re very proud of its Irish roots, and the fact that it has grown so steadily over the years, and what we’ve learned and what we stand for, and everybody’s so proud of that.
“When we look back to 2008 at making the changes, extending our opening hours and becoming a better operator, better food, better service, better interior, focusing on our takeaway and then creating that whole catering division, we were building pillars and foundations in the business then that was going to help us stand the test of time through that roller coaster over the years. There are some areas of the business that are going to outperform others, and it is a comfort blanket to have that within the business from time to time, because not everything is going to operate exceptionally well all the time throughout a calendar year, particularly in hospitality.”
But while many hospitality brands chase footfall on Ireland’s traditional high streets, Gourmet Food Parlour can often be found in locations slightly removed from main thoroughfares. “I’ve grown Gourmet Food Parlour not being on the high street for the simple reason that I just made that choice. Our restaraunts and cafes were kind of in the suburbs or a little bit away.”
The brand has still found a home on two of Dublin’s busiest shopping streets in partnership with Arnott’s and Brown Thomas. “We’ve got beautiful locations on Henry Street and Grafton Street that we’re very proud of, and that’s been a really wonderful experience.”
On the wider retail landscape, Heskin points to online shopping and the cost of running a retail unit in Ireland as the forces reshaping smaller towns in particular.
“I think the world is very expensive now, and it’s becoming more expensive, and people are buying a lot of stuff online, so they’re not making the choice to go into a store as much as they used to anymore, they’re ordering on their phones, we spend so much time on our tablets, so things are changing, things are absolutely changing. I think the cities and bigger towns will still be strong, but I think it’s those rural towns that do need to have a strong business community to keep those going.”
Heskin describes Gourmet Food Parlour as “extremely system-driven,” tracking everything from hourly sales to wage costs by restaurant and by day. She also keeps a close eye on how eating habits are shifting since the pandemic, noting that diners are booking earlier in the evening and that brunch remains, in her words, “huge.”
New adventures in food
A new restaurant opens in Dublin the coming months, adding to a portfolio that Heskin says she keeps deliberately selective.
“We’re very suburb-driven, where there is a crossover of corporate, but a lot of residential as well, and we look for both. Our catering division, we opened up a new catering division just over a year ago in Galway, and we’re after getting some wonderful contracts there. Catering and events is a huge space for us, and I really want to focus on growing that. And then, for what the brand stands for and the type of food that we’re serving, we’re breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner in most locations. Then we have the catering division, so we’re one of the very few food hospitality businesses in the country that actually does all of that.
“So there’s quite a few unique attributes to that, and the focus would be to continue to look at those revenue streams and continue to strengthen those in the years ahead, and quite possibly look at other concepts, more daytime concepts too, which I’m kind of excited about, perfecting different culinary concepts within the brand as well. And then, as I said, catering and events, we’re very excited about the direction that’s going in, and the breakdown of it, it’s probably worth about 25% of our overall turnover”
Of the catering side of the business, sports catering is the biggest aspect which she attributes to that fateful phone call.
The most important focus for Heskin is to maintain the magic that has made it all possible.
“I could have opened more than what we have now, over the years, but it is important not to lose the culture and the heart and the love that is in the business for the brand and for the restaurants and the food we serve.”
Looking back on two decades of trading through recessions, a pandemic and a cost of living crisis, Heskin credits her team above any decision of her own.
“We have the most incredible team in this business,” she says. “I give every part of the success of Gourmet Food Parlour to the people who were with us on the journey.”
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