Company History

About Kylemore Acres Ltd.

Diana Murray, Managing Director of Kylemore Acres Ltd. took the first step in establishing the company by successful completion of a course on “How to Start Your Own Business” that was sponsored by the Galway County and City Enterprise Board.  The second step was for Diana to establish Kylemore Acres Ltd. in 2002 as a business focused on providing to the Irish consumer a healthy, quality alternative to the mass-produced meal mixes.  This was at a time when cooking with herbs in the West of Ireland was not popular practice.  By surveying food retailers around the country, she was able to determine that there were no All-Natural, Irish-made seasoning mixes available commercially.

In 2003, five test products were developed and sold through selected shops around County Galway to determine how this new niche-market product was received by the Irish consumer.  There was a mixed reception about them, so it was back to the drawing board, or in this case, the kitchen, where some new products were created and tested, refined and tested again.  Thankfully, some of our friends and neighbours were willing test subjects that provided useful feedback.

By the middle of 2004, Diana had redesigned the packaging and was ready to launch a range of 6 products.  She and her husband and business partner Richard contracted a distributor for 4 months before Richard resigned from his full-time job and took over all the Sales and Marketing for Kylemore Acres in January, 2005.  Starting with 30 retail outlets in a 5-county area, Richard grew the business to 183 retail outlets in a 21-county area by the end of 2005.

Towards the end of 2005, Diana developed and launched the Kylemore Acres Dixie Cornbread Stuffing that was a loaf pan mix for making the perfect poultry stuffing for the holiday season.  This product was featured in the December 2005 edition of Irish Tatler magazine.

As she continued to develop new products, Diana’s efforts were recognised and rewarded in April 2006 when she received the BPW Galway Business Woman of the Year award for the Best Start-Up Business.  A few weeks later, Kylemore Acres was featured on RTE’s Nationwide television magazine programme.

2006 is also the first year that Kylemore Acres Ltd. won a Bridgestone Award for the Best In Ireland for Fine Food.  We’ve also received this prestigious award in 2007, 2008 and 2009.  You can read a full review about us in the 2007 edition of the Bridgestone Irish Food Guide.  Over the years we’ve also been reviewed in the Sunday Tribune, Galway NOW magazine, Cork NOW magazine, and Irish Food & Wine magazine.

Meanwhile, back on the farm where activities are managed by Diana, expansion of the gardens and the general growth of the gardens has enabled Kylemore Acres Ltd. to stay on the cutting edge of supply and demand.   Although the wet weather over the last few years has been challenging, we’ve been fortunate to have continued good growth on the speciality herbs used in our custom blends.

At the behest of a few customers, during the 2006 holiday season we launched our new Mulling Spices in specified areas to see how they would be received by the Irish consumer.  The favourable response led us to roll out the Mulling Spices to a larger scope of customers at the 2007 SHOP Expostion in the RDS.  In 2008, the packaging and recipe booklet were redesigned to be more durable and attractive and the product was launched throughout the Republic of Ireland.  Higher grade ingredients used in our 2009 production of the Mulling Spices have further enhanced this quality product that is now available in selected shops in Northern Ireland.

By the end of 2009, Kylemore Acres products can be found in 350 retail outlets in a 31-county area.  It’s our hope to add retail outlets in Co. Derry in early 2010 so that all 32 counties will have retail outlets for our range of Gourmet Herb Sachets and our Mulling Spices.