Maximising meat
Having made its mark with award-winning black and white puddings and speciality sausages, Kelly’s of Newport Artisan Butchers is seeking to make its brand even bigger
Being a good butcher and making top quality products in his hometown of Newport, Co Mayo is all Sean Kelly knows. His father Dominic started the business in 1930 and Sean and his brother Seamus went straight into it when they left school.
Since they started making their own sausages in 1990, demand dictated that the brothers extend the premises to the point where it is now 6,000 sq ft in total. Employing 30 people, it consists of a high street butchers shop, abattoir, manufacturing unit and cafe.
The expanded premises were officially opened by well-known chef Neven Maguire in 2016. “Money cannot buy that kind of endorsement,” says Kelly. “A lot of chefs in the west of Ireland use our products now.”
Shauna Kelly, Sean’s daughter, makes every dish in the cafe, Kelly’s Kitchen, with the products. One of the most popular is ‘Black Goat’, a baguette filled with black pudding, goat’s cheese and homemade relish and toasted under the grill. The cafe’s turnover went up by 25% in 2017.
Made with the same secret recipe for generations, Kelly’s of Newport Artisan Butchers’ speciality sausages and black and white puddings have won numerous awards. They are available in outlets around Ireland and the UK and from its online shop. In recent years, the range was extended to include new products such as hazlett and vegetarian white pudding.
Sean Kelly was the first Irishman to be knighted by the Normandy-based organisation the Brotherhood of the Black Pudding. The brothers run an all-Ireland putóg (traditional black pudding) throwing competition every year and make red and green sausages in support of the Mayo senior GAA football team.
Kelly’s of Newport Artisan Butchers has exhibited at the National Craft & Design Fair for several years. “People come looking for us now at the fair. They know the product,” notes Kelly.
In the past year, the business secured listings in 15 Dunnes Stores in Connaught and is currently negotiating with Tesco. Its black and white pudding in a box made with five different dried seaweeds was part of Lidl’s Kick Start supplier promotion programme in 2017 and will be again this year.
“Our approach has always been to grow the business in small steps. Every customer is new,” says Kelly. “We are always trying to find different ways of using the premises more efficiently and of bringing down manufacturing costs.”
“We are always trying to find different ways of using the premises more efficiently and of bringing down manufacturing costs”