​​Tasty deal in Denmark for Northern Ireland's innovation-led Scott’s crispy onions

The family business, which pioneered the development of a 5-strong range of original and flavoured crispy onion snacks, has also recently strengthened its position in the strategically important market in Great Britain through agreements with leading food distributors in England and Scotland.

Outlining the significant new business, Jodie Scott, the Coleraine company’s marketing co-ordinator, says the agreements follow concerted campaigns by its marketing team to expand sales of the crispy onions, including a new gluten-free variety, here and especially in markets outside Northern Ireland.

The new gluten-free crispy onions are an excellent example of the family-owned and managed company’s longstanding and successful commitment to product and process innovation.

“We are enjoying significant growth in all aspects of our business, especially our recently launched snack pots for the dynamic ‘on-the-go’ market and a unique gluten-free product.

“The new business in Denmark should see our original crispy onions widely available in the country and particularly through the many street food providers in centres such as Copenhagen, Aarhus and Odense,” Jodie continues.

“We are very excited by the reaction to our innovative gluten-free product, which we have pioneered and is now proving popular with retailers both here, in Britain, the Republic of Ireland and abroad,” she adds.

The new business in Denmark for crispy onions - long popular as tobacco onions in restaurants virtually everywhere - followed participation in a leading trade show, while the extension of contacts in England and Scotland resulted from a marketing drive there with existing customers, such as Cress Company in Dunfermline, and new leads the marketing team had pinpointed and subsequently turned into business.

“We are all very excited about the potential of the Danish breakthrough, a new market for us, as well as the latest agreements with successful and established distributors in Britain. These significantly increase our presence in what is a hugely important and easily accessible marketplace for us,” says Jodie.

“We are continuing to invest time and other resources there to increase awareness of our award-winning crispy onions that will lead directly to further sales in the months ahead,” she adds.

The crispy onions are a tasty addition especially to Denmark’s classic open-faced sandwiches, smorgasbord, a slice of rye bread with various toppings such as pickled herring, roast beef, eggs….and now crispy onions direct from Coleraine!

The handy snack pots have become extremely popular as a genuine alternative to chocolates, other sweets, popcorn, crisps and nuts.

The ambitious family-owned and led company, a Food NI member, is now the market leader and was the first to create crispy onion products, promoted extensively as ‘No Ordinary Onions’.

The freshly sliced onions, which are handmade, cooked and packed in a modern processing unit, are now available in flavours such as steak, smoky bacon, sweet chilli and Chinese salt and chilli. All ingredients used in the process are completely natural.

It’s a progressive company which continues to stay ahead of competitors by investing in innovations such as the new snack pots and gluten-free product.

The handy and convenient snack pots now account for around 15 percent of the company’s business…and are continuing to go strongly with people ‘on the go’ due to their convenience, quality and especially outstanding flavours.

The company, which employs around 20 people, began producing unique ready-to-eat crispy onions in 2013. The onions, which can be eaten hot or cold, are produced fresh daily to ensure consistent, restaurant quality for professional chefs, street food vendors for burgers in particular and home cooks.

The idea for crispy onions came from a leading local chef, Darren Watt, who had seen the popularity of tobacco onions with diners ordering steaks or burgers. He urged the company, then a hugely successful distributor of fresh vegetables and fruit, to make the first version for restaurants and home cooks eager to include a delicious tobacco onion-style taste to meals.

The experienced chef supervised the development of a test batch of crispy onions for initial consumer tests, trials which proved the product was tasty and offered significant potential for both hospitality and retail outlets here and further afield.

As well as being essentially plant-based, the crispy onions are suitable for vegans and vegetarians and are now also ideal for those concerned about gluten.

The products are now found here in the network of farm shops, delis, independent grocers, family butchers and convenience stores, as well as Dunnes Stores.