An electrical fault turned Colm Healy’s chocolate factory in the Kerry coastal idyll of Ballinskelligs into a sugar-fuelled inferno which burned for two days. When the smoke cleared, Healy’s venture, begun almost as a whim, now weighed on him like a millstone. “It was the start of a long, dark month for me,” recalls Healy (48), who wondered if rebuilding the factory was worth the effort. The Raheny-born entrepreneur eventually resolved that it was, and a year later Skelligs Chocolate took up residence in its new factory, built on the ashes of the old premises.

These days, the business is enjoying renewed momentum. Healy employs 15 staff and the Wild Atlantic Way tourist trail, which virtually passes Skelligs Chocolate’s front door, helps direct 20,000 visitors to the premises. The open-plan factory lends itself to impromptu ‘tours’ (Healy avoids the word because it sounds too formal) for those seeking a Willy Wonka-type adventure.

Passing Trade

The factory reality is enjoyable but less fantastical, although Healy did spend €4,000 on a Willy Wonka mural to please his visitors. The investment was worth it, as half of Skelligs’ turnover comes from passing trade. The rest comes from sales in specialist food stores and some exports. In all, over a tonne of chocolate is produced by the factory every month.

Skelligs Chocolate was originally founded in 1996 by Michael and Amanda Mac Gabhann. They set the business up in one of several small-scale craft units in Ballinskelligs, which were put there as part of an Údarás na Gaeltachta initiative for the economically deprived area. Healy, meanwhile, had been working for himself in many different businesses.

In Association with

“I had a boat yard and a security company, I worked in electronics and other areas,” he recalls. “I also lived in Asia for several years and having come back to Ireland I was looking for something to get involved in. My sister lives in Kerry and she mentioned to me that the Skelligs Chocolate owners were looking to sell. I went down there, saw the place and liked it. After chatting to the owners for a half an hour, I said to myself ‘Feck it, I can do this’, so I bought it in 2004.”

With no prior experience in the food industry, Healy threw himself into the business of chocolate making, building the brand and its products. He bought Limerick company Cocoa Bean Artisan Chocolates a few years after Skelligs to add solid-chocolate products to its artisan offerings, retaining the brand and building up stockists for both ranges.

Traumatic

Growth was steady if not spectacular. “Things were going on a nice trajectory up to 2010,” says Healy. “I was in New York, getting engaged, when I heard about the fire. Coming back home and seeing the damage was very traumatic and I had to ask myself some serious questions in its aftermath. The business seemed to be the only thing keeping me in Kerry.”

Healy says that his competitive nature eventually won out – that and the fact that ten people were relying on him for their livelihood. “I didn’t want to be beaten by something as stupid as a fire, so I set myself the challenge of rebuilding and reopening the factory within a year. I kept reminding myself that the fire had only destroyed the factory, not the business.”

Members of the local community rallied around Healy’s business, with some offering to work on the rebuild for free. A makeshift production setup allowed Skelligs to continue making its chocolate products in another premises as the factory was rebuilt. “We were down to about 25% capacity but we got the factory built and opened within 12 months. Nothing prepares you for a situation like that – there was no manual I could go to.”

Colm Healy’s father, Sean Healy, invested €150,000 in the business in 2007 and another €240,000 in January 2011, after the fire. According to Colm, the cost of the new factory premises and equipment amounted to €800,000. Much of this was funded by Healy’s personal loans to the company, which amounted to €594,000 at the end of 2011.

Healy admits that he’d have sold the business on the day it reopened if someone had made the right offer. “That way, at least it would have been on my terms,” says Healy. “Some people said that I’d never make the investment back, given how remote the business is. I personally never thought that would be the case.

Poster Boy

“We have a lovely building and Failte Ireland and other agencies use us as a poster boy for what you can do in a rural area,” he adds. “That comes back to us however in Údarás grants and other supports. It has to be a two-way street, when agencies are happy to help you like that.” The company has received grant aid of €130,000 from Udaras over the years.

Healy says that his plans for the business are twofold: grow exports and develop a presence in Dublin. “I would love to replicate what we do in Kerry in Dublin, somewhere like the CHQ building, with high tourist footfall that’s going to give me a good footprint.” Healy says he is open to a collaborative approach for such an expansion and he suggests possible synergies with the whiskey industry, where Skelligs Chocolate has already made some inroads.

In addition to chocolate-making, Healy has been running a business consultancy service for SMEs for the past five years. “I focus on early-stage companies as clients,” he explains. “After the chaos of the first two or three years of establishing a business, when you take a breath and ask, ‘What next?’. That’s where I try to focus. It involves helping clients improve their brand equity, move with the times and stay abreast of competition.”

Healy has more than enough personal experience of the vagaries of business to bend the ear of a client or two. “It’s lovely when someone tells you you’ve done a great job and you’ve a great product, but I’ve no way of improving my business based on that alone,” he says. “I’d almost encourage companies to make mistakes so they learn from those experiences.”