IN 1995, Dunmanway man Tom Kearney sketched a picture of a factory on a piece of cardboard.

The food scientist was working in Boston at the time but had big dreams to launch a food R&D business in his native West Cork.

And thanks to the vision, entrepreneurial skills and appetite for hard work of both Tom and his business partner Denis O’Driscoll, the enterprise – Spice O’Life – celebrated 25 years
in business last year, operating from a 60,000 sq foot factory, inspired by his original sketch.

‘When I think about that, I know I’m meant to be doing what I’m doing,’ said Tom, who along with Aughaville man Denis, employ a team of over 160 people.

Tom, a UCC graduate whet his business appetite with Kerry Group before moving to Boston in 1994 to work in a new product development role with a food company that carried out custom
spice blending.

‘I went to the US with a view to finding something for myself to bring home,’ he recalls.

What he learned was the art of spice technology, and combined with the skills he had learned in Kerry Group, he came back in 1996 with a plan to set up a food business. Unfortunately,he was unsuccessful in his initial efforts to get grant aid but undeterred, he headed back to the USA.

‘I spent two and a half years in San Francisco working with Pat Coakley from Dunmanway and Paul O’Driscoll from Drinagh building timber-frame houses and came home with enough funds to set up a licensed research lab in the garage of our house at the time, where I was developing some blends for industrial customers,’ said Tom (58).

That was step one in the food R&D firm’s flavoursome story, 

In 2002 he rented a unit in the square in Dunmanway from  Cork County Council, initially working with his wife Karen, before chemist, Denis O’Driscoll, former CEO of Bantry Bay Seafoods, joined the business in 2005 .… and the rest is history. 

Spice O’Life now occupies a 60,000 square foot complex in Underhill Industrial Estate which they purchased in 2018  investing over €16m in bespoke, precision refits and extensions. Works are ongoing. 

Tom and Denis employ over 160 people from the local community, along with food scientists, culinary chefs and chemists.

There are several elements to the business: they supply to butchers in all 32 counties (burger seasonings, coatings, sauce sachets etc); they supply the food service industry (including chipotle mayo to Supermacs) and supply retailers (private label and their own brand  of pour over sauces called Insanely Good). 

Among their clients are Dunnes Stores, Supermacs, Lidl, Aldi, Tesco, Centra and SuperValu. 

In total they produce 500 products from dry seasoning blends to liquid sauces, marinades, and dressings, to ready-to-use finished prepared consumer food. A total of 100 are their own products and they’re the brand leader of chilled pepper sauce in Ireland.

They’ll produce 3,500 tonnes of product in 2026 –  and not surprisingly warehousing space extends to over 7,000 sq feet with Denis’ son Bryan the company’s purchasing manager. 

‘We have to carry a critical mass of spices being so far from the markets – our ingredients aren’t coming from up Coole Mountain,’ jokes Tom.

Their USP is that everything is created on site – nothing is bought in, except for raw materials.

‘The backbone of Spice O’Life is that everything we sell is manufactured in Dunmanway. We also have a fantastic innovation team who are always looking ahead at what’s trending and keeping us ahead of the posse and we invest €600,000 in R&D every year. But our ethos is that it’s never a race to the bottom when it comes to competition – we’ll always stick to quality,’ said Denis (71). 

Spice O’Life has a strong dedication and commitment to sustainability.

‘We invested three quarters of a million euro in a solar farm. Our energy costs are €350,00 a year but the panels reduced that by 33% this year. Ultimately we’d love this to be a circular business – producing our own electricity, using our own water and to have zero impact on the environment,’ said Tom. 

What’s the secret to their incredible success? 

‘Good customers are one big reason for our success, and none of it would have happened without Denis  - coincidentally he also grew up over a pub and is a farmer’s son and we both boarded in Farranferris secondary school, just a few years apart. He’s like a brother to me – he’s the ying and I’m the yang!’ said Tom. 

‘But we weren’t greenhorns starting out either,’ he added. ‘We were experienced enough, but having said that you’re always learning – three bad moves and you’re out.’

Tom’s role models are his late father Michael Joseph, and mother Margaret (Peggy to her friends).  

‘My parents ran a pub, we lived over it, and a shop and my father was also a farmer – they worked from 6am to midnight seven days a week so I grew up seeing hard work, and where it could get you.’ 

Working 13 hour days, five days a week are more usual than unusual for the father-of-three. 

His best business advice?

‘Nothing is achieved until something is sold, and nothing is sold until you get paid!’

Winning The Southern Star business ambassador award was a huge honour, they both said, admitting they’re more comfortable out of the limelight. 

‘But it means a lot especially when you look at the calibre of past winners,’ said Denis. 

Plans for the future include further expansion into UK markets, says Denis. 

‘We’re already in Lidl in the UK, but we see big opportunities for butchers and supermarkets in the UK. We have the capacity to produce with the new plant, so we see a big future ahead.’