Proof of the pudding
Endorsed by chef Neven Maguire, Kelly’s of Newport is well known for the quality of its sausages and black and white puddings in Ireland and the UK
B orn into the butchery business, Sean Kelly says when he was going to school he had a butcher’s knife in his hand more often than he had a pen. Nowadays, alongside his brother Seamus, he runs the award-winning artisan butcher’s shop, Kelly’s of Newport in Co Mayo.
The Kelly brothers went straight into the business started by their father Dominic in 1930 when they left school.
They started making sausages in 1990, and demand grew to the point where, 15 years later, they built a 2,000 sq ft unit for making their hugely popular sausages and even more popular black and white puddings. Three years ago, they trebled the size of this unit to meet demand – in 2016 they recorded 11% growth in sales compared to the previous year.
Kelly’s, which now also involves a third generation of the family, has its own abattoir and supplies retail outlets across Ireland (including the SuperValu chain) as well as exporting some of its products to the UK.
The business employs 29 in Newport, and Sean’s daughter Shauna runs a restaurant called Kelly’s Kitchen next door to the butcher shop.
Among their many devoted customers is well-known chef Neven Maguire, who likes to serve his own customers a full Irish breakfast with produce from Kelly’s of Newport. He officially opened the new premises for the Kellys in 2015. “That was unbelievable for me,” says Kelly. “It felt like a real stamp of approval.”
Sean Kelly was the first Irishman to be knighted by the Normandy-based organisation the Brotherhood of the Knights of the Black Pudding. Apart from anything else, there’s a real sense of fun about the Kellys. They have been known to make red and green sausages in solidarity with the Mayo senior football team, and their annual All-Ireland putóg (traditional black pudding) throwing competition is legendary.
Some of the toughest times for the business over the years came in the form of the horse-meat scandal and other similar scares, but Kelly says it just kept on doing what it did best. “Our philosophy is that we produce up to a standard, not down to a price,” he says.
Kelly’s has always tried to make the most of its opportunities and stay one step ahead of consumer trends. When they realised that the Great Western Greenway from Westport to Achill would run right past their doorstep, the brothers produced black and white puddings with added organic seaweed and put a map of the Greenway on the packaging to appeal to passers-by.
“We go to a few shows every year, and people will come up to us looking for vegetarian or gluten-free products. It took us a while to develop them but we now make a gluten-free pudding and vegetarian sausages. You have to have an edge in this business; you have to be that bit different.”
“You have to have an edge in this business; you have to be that bit different.”