A few weeks ago, I attended the Start Up & Grow Show in Belfast, organised by Enterprise NI. The day was all about supporting entrepreneurs and sharing stories, with a great line-up of speakers telling us all about their start-up businesses and giving some useful tips and advice.
I was taking notes all the while of course, and have decided to share one of the stories with you for this week’s blog post, based on what Declan McBride from Pop Notch said. I think you’ll agree that his start-up story is quite inspirational and just goes to show what having a clever idea, a belief in yourself and a go-do attitude can achieve…
Just two years ago, Pop Notch co-founder Declan McBride was in a sticky situation. Having worked his way up to becoming a director at Chambers Coach Hire, he got itchy feet and decided to look for a new challenge.
He was extremely well-known in the industry and was certain that if he set up a consultancy business, he could enjoy a successful new career. However, as he admitted at the Start Up & Grow Show: “In the next year, my phone didn’t ring…”
“I was earning around £52,000 a year and I walked out of it,” he said. “After a year, I got a court order saying they were taking my house. I said to my wife – ‘there’s no way I’m letting this house go’. Eighteen years ago I saw an idea for flavoured popcorn, so I said – this will work!
“I said, if I can make flavoured popcorn, put it in a nice clear bag and sell it to a school for £1, well, there’s 2,500 schools in Northern Ireland, so in a week, I can make most of the mortgage.”
With only about £100 left in the bank, Declan headed off to Argos and bought a popper, then visited Crawford’s Maghera and bought four packets of popcorn. Another £20 was then used to buy sugar and the basic ingredients he needed to make a caramel.
“Very quickly, I learned how to pop popcorn,” he joked. “We bought another popper and in two months we had 16 poppers in the place. I put the popcorn in the car and sold it to JC Stewarts (in Magherafelt) and other shops. And we got a name – So Popcorn.”
Spurred on by his sales, Declan and his wife then rented a unit, where they painstakingly hand-mixed their caramel, working hard to fulfil orders. The penny then dropped that it wasn’t just all about the popcorn – how they presented their product and branded it would also be key to making their business a success.
“I realised it was about marketing – about the branding, not just popcorn,” said Declan. “A designer did our branding – worth thousands of pounds – and said I could pay him when I had the money. We then got an order from ASDA…”
Purchasing another machine for popcorn-making, the team eventually rebranded with another designer, making it better reflect the fun that’s behind Pop Notch. As Declan said: “We love fun.”
Indeed, their brand slogan is now, ‘Eat more fun’, and you really can’t say better than that.
Offering three tasty popcorn flavours, Pop Notch is a premium popcorn brand based in Maghera that’s grown significantly in the past few years. You can choose from Marshmallow, Salty Caramel, and Sweet & Salty flavours, with the Salty Caramel a previous winner of the 2014 Great Taste Award.
As it says on the Pop Notch website, you can expect: ‘Bigger kernels, better flavour, perfect texture.’
“We would sell about 42,000 bags a week,” said Declan at the conference. “We’re supplying Sainsburys and Tesco and have just won four awards with SPAR. We also supply Sweden, Iceland and France, and have just supplied to Spain.”
He added that by November, Pop Notch would be available in 184 stores, while they were “close to signing a deal for Hong Kong” and had just launched healthy kids’ popcorn.
“This is the hardest journey you’re ever going to go on but it’s absolutely fantastic,” he said. “There are a lot of people in this part of the world willing to help you, but if you don’t believe in your product, go home now, because you’re wasting your time.”
Visit Pop Notch: http://popnotch.co.uk/
Find them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/popnotch
Chat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/popnotchni
Sneak a peek on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/popnotchni/
NB Pop Notch images reproduced with their permission.