Darragh McCullough: Can home-delivered ready meals work in rural Ireland?

The odds seem stacked against a ‘fake-away’ start-up outside the major cities – but passion, drive and business smarts can make it a success

Bon Appetit's chicken tikka masala with pilau rice. ‘The industry has progressed so much that it is now able to deliver restaurant-grade grub in a package’.

Darragh McCullough

I was at a food producers event in Donegal last week. On paper, there’s very little going for a budding food manufacturer who wants to set up in the hills of the north-west.

While there are pockets of the county dense with potato growers, dairy farmers and suckler herds, there’s more mountainy sheep in the county than all of the aforementioned combined.