A Cork business has sought to help families and students by offering nutritious recipe inspiration on a budget using the humble egg as the staple ingredient.

Riverview Eggs is a family-run, family-owned company who has been supplying Bord Bia quality assured eggs to Irish customers for over 50 years. The business has now extended its efforts to help families by creating a series of instructional online recipe dishes featuring its award-winning eggs. The series, entitled “Get Cracking with Eggs”, features 16 easy to make recipes which are available to view on the Riverview Eggs website and its social media channels.

Speaking about the decision to create the series, Riverview Eggs owner DJ Kelleher said that he wanted to create something that would be useful for families and students during what is a stressful time. “We understand it is a stressful time at the moment and we wanted to do our bit to try and offer something that we felt would be of use,” he said.

“Get Cracking with Eggs” is really back to basics when it comes to cooking, it shows people how to cook food that’s nutritious yet easy to make in a short space of time, perfect for anyone on the go.

“We put a lot of thought into the recipes, both myself and Deirdre O’Mahony, the face of the recipe series, and we were determined to show the variety of healthy, nutritious meals that could be made using our Riverview eggs and whatever you might have at home in the press or fridge,” said Mr. Kelleher.

He said that they are “delighted” with how the series turned out and hope that it will be useful to families and students all across the country.

He also highlighted the nutritional and health benefits associated with eggs at what is “a vulnerable time for people”. Get Cracking with Eggs is live now on the Riverview Eggs website and recipes can also be viewed on the Riverview Eggs’ Facebook and Instagram pages.

 

Press Coverage:

 

Online Coverage:

• https://www.irishmirror.ie/lifestyle/slimming-dieting/secrets-making-perfect-egg-dishes-22818789
• https://www.irishexaminer.com/farming/arid-40074056.html
• https://www.womansway.ie/main-blog/2020/10/11/an-eggs-cellent-idea
• https://www.retailnews.ie/news-and-views/online-cookery-series-by-irish-company-demonstrates-versatility-of-the-humble-egg/
• https://www.thetaste.ie/celebrate-world-egg-day-with-this-cracking-online-egg-recipe-series/
• https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/Cork-family-business-expands-offering-with-new-series-of-online-recipe-dishes-f993c3a5-2e8a-41f0-a03b-1da84b37844a-ds
• https://www.corkbeo.ie/news/local-news/cork-family-business-launch-cracking-19071492
• https://avondhupress.ie/online-cookery-series-demonstrates-versatility-of-the-humble-egg/
• https://www.corkbilly.com/2020/10/online-cookery-series-by-irish-company.html

 

Radio Coverage:

DJ Kelleher recently did an interview with David Linnane of the Evening Echo, see below for more.

How did the business start?
It was the brainchild of my mother, Margaret, and my father Dan-Joe Kelleher. They were married in 1965. Then in 1966 they decided that they needed another revenue stream to support the farm.  My mother then went and bought 700 hens and that was the start. The following year, she bought a further 2,100 hens. At that time the only eggs laid in Ireland coming down from the North and in the border counties, so here was this woman who was able to supply fresh eggs for the markets and the people in Cork. In 1969 and 1970 she put up the first purpose built hen house in Cork, and put 6,000 hens into it. Within four years, she had the bones of 10,000 hens.

Has much changed over the years?
The ethos of the company hasn’t changed, it is still about quality and local. We are based in Watergrasshill. The volume has increased and we have expanded into packaging the eggs also. Now we have 350,000 hens. Each year, the market grows and the production base grows. There is a lot of hard work involved to keep up with demand but never ever compromising on quality. My mother and I have always tried to be proactive and have worked with the industry and with Bord Bia to create a guarantee that eggs were healthy and nutritious for people. In the late 80’s and 90’s we wanted a quality assurance scheme, so we developed the best way of creating the best possible eggs for the Irish market. People said that my mother was nuts for trying, but she did it, and now it’s there as the Bord Bia Egg Quality Assurance Scheme, and that’s a prerequisite for producing eggs in the republic. Riverview also holds an AA status with the BRC Global Food Standard.

Tell us about your staff.
We have 23 full time staff, and we support another 40 staff on our producing farms. That’s people like my brother Mortimer, who produces eggs for me. He has two staff with him, so that is three people we are supporting right there. My brother Richard also has an egg production farm too. My sister Mary Kelleher is a Director of Riverview and the financial controller. All our farms are family run, which in turn means a more hands on approach to the production of eggs. My mother is still involved. She is up every morning to spend two hours in the hen house, and she is 79. People ask her why she still does it, and her answer is “What else would I be doing between 8.30 and 10.30am”.

We are all so proud of her and delighted that she will be awarded ‘The Cork Business Woman of the Year’ at the upcoming Cork Business Awards 2016.

Tell us about your clients.
We supply to Dunnes Stores, Supervalu, Centra, Londis, Spar, Aldi, Costcutter, all the chains. But we also supply into the food service industry. We supply 90% of Pallas Foods’ eggs, the biggest foodservices player on the island. We have a total cross section of the industry. I always make sure that we have a leg up on the other producers. My father always had the old expression; don’t be left sitting on your hands. That’s why we developed a traceability system with GS1 Global in 2014. It was so simple and so easy. Before, if someone had to do a recall, they would spend hours at it. For us, we could say where every egg was laid and sold to in seven minutes. We had Minister Simon Coveney, who was in agriculture at the time, down to launch it, and we had people coming from the EU, the UN, people from China, Germany, and Poland, all coming over to see how it worked. I suppose something else that sets us apart from the competition is that we have for a long time been supporting local charities. Most people don’t know (because we don’t tend to make a fuss about it) but we do donate over 30 dozen eggs every week here on Leeside to Cork Simon Community and Cork Penny Dinners, we also give cartons of eggs to St. Vincent De Paul for their Christmas Hampers.

What’s your average day like?
My typical day is spent dealing with the clients like Pallas Foods or Dunnes Stores. I’m also involved hugely in the marketing side of things. We have an amazing team of people here at our packaging centre, and we run a very tight ship.  It’s not just about me, it’s not just about my Mother. We all have a role and we all want Riverview Eggs to continue on and flourish.

Do you think Riverview Eggs will be around in another 50 years?
I certainly believe so, but people will need to realise that if they want fresh produce, they must be prepared to pay for it. We have to be able to pay our producer farmers a fair price, which will ensure that fresh food will continue to be produced locally well into the future.

Family run egg producer ‘Riverview Eggs’ are taking a proactive stance towards giving back to the community by facilitating a cooking demonstration that will benefit Cork’s most vulnerable citizen’s. The Cork based egg company organised an instructive session demonstrating how to cook tasty and nutritious meals using eggs as a core ingredient which was aimed at staff and volunteers at Cork Simon Community. This innovative event took place at Cork Simon’s Emergency Shelter on Anderson’s Quay, Cork [Tuesday, 11th October] with well-known local Chef Beth Haughton from Club Brasserie giving generously of her time and skill while Riverview Eggs provided the egg and other food elements to complete the menu.

The event was attended by a number of Cork Simon kitchen staff and volunteers who were shown how to prepare hearty dishes for residents and service users of Cork Simon. Dishes included the ‘All Day Breakfast Bake’, a luxurious ‘Home Made Egg Mayonnaise’ and an easy but delicious ‘Asian Chicken and Egg Fried Rice’. The recipes were explained, prepared and cooked in real time in the Emergency Shelter kitchen with participants all pitching in to chop, dice and peel, getting stuck in to learn from Chef Beth. The overall aim of the demo was to show ways in which affordable meals can be put together for either individuals or large groups with recipes that can easily be ‘scaled up’. The session was light hearted and fun, providing entertainment in equal measure to the practical applications of the recipes being learned. Speaking about her involvement in the event Chef Beth said “Being that Club Brasserie is located so near to Cork Simon, we feel a neighbourly obligation to give them our support when and where we can and I was delighted to be asked by Riverview Eggs to partner with them on this event and I hope that the kitchen team find it was of benefit and will give them a few new ideas for dishes to create from the regular egg donations they receive” Beth and her family also have a historical connection with charities in Cork through Cork Penney Dinners.

Meanwhile, organiser of the event, DJ Kelleher of Riverview Eggs said “Giving back to the community is a legacy handed down from my parents Dan Joe and Margaret Kelleher who set up the business back in 1966, and being that this is now our 50th year supporting local charities, like Cork Simon Community and Penny Dinners, is a tradition we are proud to continue”. Riverview Eggs have a long history of community interaction and involvement. On a weekly basis they donate 30 dozen eggs a week, to both Cork Simon Community and Cork Penny Dinners while also contributing cartons of eggs to the St. Vincent de Paul’s Christmas hampers on an annual basis.

There is clearly a strong spirit for giving back to the community at Riverview Eggs and Club Brasserie and as D.J Kelleher puts it “We have been inordinately fortunate to have such a successful business and we are so grateful to everyone who has stocked our product or bought from us down through the years. We are privileged to be in a position to be able to give back to the community that has supported us for so long.”

D.J Kelleher, Owner of Riverview Eggs Ltd. addressed the International Egg Conference in Mexico recently. He was invited to participate by The Ambassador of Mexico to Ireland, Carlos Garcia de Alba and the Dean of the University of Guadalajara – Tepatitlan de Morelos Campus – Dr. Leticia Leal Moya. His presentation outlined the challenges faced by Riverview Eggs and the Irish egg industry in its efforts to meet the market demands and EU regulations. With the help of Bord Bia and the Irish Egg Association, D.J was able to develop a presentation that would be meaningful to a Central and South American audience.

In advance of the conference, D.J first flew to Guadalajara in western Mexico and then travelled down to Tepatitlan where the event was held. Here D.J spent two days meeting with various lecturers across food and business faculties and the various associated research teams where he learned of the difficulties and challenges faced by the egg and agri-food sector industries in Mexico. Speaking following his visit, DJ said, “Mexico has a population of over 122 million people and a registered hen laying population of over 150 million, compared to over 3 million in Ireland. Unlike Ireland where the Bord Bia Quality Assurance Schemes and Origin Green exist, Mexico has very little by way of independently approved systems and methods of production, across all of their agri-food sectors.” There were lots of questions relating to the sector, how Ireland has addressed the very same challenges, and how the industry continually grows and meets the requirements of its ever changing markets and consumers to which D.J answered these questions based on his experience.

The International Egg Conference was attended by over 500 people, including industry representatives and related faculty lecturers and students of the University, and D.J. was one of the keynote speakers. He addressed about the challenges Riverview Eggs, Ireland and indeed Europe faced over the past 20 years and highlighted how the formation of the Egg Quality Assurance Scheme (EQAS) and Bord Bia were essential to the creation of the high industry standards. D.J also outlined all of the factors associated with the EQAS and what the egg industry had to do to meet this new and united method of producing the safest possible egg for the consumer. He then went on to speak about Bord Bia’s unique Origin Green, a sustainability development programme for the Irish food and drink industry and he outlined the criteria for membership and associated benefits for the food producer, the local community and Ireland as the food island of Europe. DJ noted, “The conference delegates were delighted to receive the information in the presentation, in the hope that they might be able to address the issues and challenges of their own. Plenty of questions were asked at the end of the presentation, which I answered to the best of his knowledge!”

In conclusion, DJ added, “I would like to thank the Mexican Embassy and the Mexican Ambassador to Ireland, Carlos Garcia de Alba and the University of Guadalajara for extending me the invitation, and hopefully assisting them in the development of their agri-food sector. I was delighted to offer help where I could and it was a great opportunity to share our industry’s progressive story.” It was especially poignant for D.J Kelleher, the Kelleher Family and all at Riverview Eggs, as the Kelleher family celebrate their 50th Anniversary, in the egg business, in 2016.

Click here to view the full report from Riverview Eggs on the International Egg Conference in Mexico (PDF)

 Riverview Eggs are really delighted with the coverage we got in the Cork Evening Echo on Wednesday 20th August 2014. The article related to the Kelleher family and the work Riverview does as a partner with Cork Penny Dinners, Cork Simon, S.V.P Cork and Cork Out-Reach. Our founder Margaret Kelleher was delighted that a business that is rooted in the community is able to give back to the community, especially in these testing and difficult times, for us all.

Sean Gallagher – Business Entrepreneur visited Riverview in November 2013, where he wrote an article on Riverview Eggs for the Sunday Independant.

Click on the link to read the full article.

http://www.independent.ie/business/farming/for-the-kelleher-family-of-riverview-its-the-egg-that-always-comes-first-29970829.html

Here are some pictures of Sean Gallgher’s visit to Rivervieweggs.

Riverview were short-listed for the Bord Bia Food Awards in 2013.

Here is a piece on the comsumer insight and a picture of Dj Kelleher – Managing Director and Margaret Kelleher – Founder of Rivervieweggs.

In 2012, Riverview invested in extensive research, including accompanied shopping trips, in-depth phone interviews and workshops. it identified the strongest brand concepts and promotional options with the greatest potential for the egg category. the company used insights from the research to inform the strategy for the Riverview brand. the results is the Riverview brand is now the second largest brand by market share in the Irish egg market.

Minister for Agriculture Food & Marine, Simon Coveney and a delegation of European industry leaders as well as UN Global Food standards agencies recently conducted a site tour at Irish Egg producer and packer Riverview Eggs’ Cork facility to learn best practices in the egg industry for traceability, with a view to applying similar best practices and standards across Europe.

Over the last two and a half years, Riverview Eggs has co-developed a unique system with GS1 Ireland (Global Standards 1(Ireland)), who develop and maintain the most widely used supply chain standards system in the world. GS1 standards improve the efficiency, safety and visibility of supply chains across multiple sectors.

Riverview Eggs is the only egg producer and packer in Ireland to have such a system and at the “press of a button”, Riverview can track and record which retailer or customer got what eggs, when they got them and from what henhouse they were produced. This allows for instant traceability and complete transparency regarding the origin egg and the supply chain of Riverview Eggs.

The delegation of European industry leaders visited the market-leading egg producer and packer on Wednesday August 14th and they included; UNECE (The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) Working Party on Agricultural Quality Standards, The Polish Agricultural Ministry and three senior executives from the Russian Egg and Poultry Industry.

Minster for Agriculture, Food & Marine, Mr. Simon Coveney said; “The visit of such an influential international delegation is of huge significance not only to Riverview Eggs, but also to Ireland as it reinforces just how rigid we are with our traceability from farm to fork. I would like to congratulate Riverview Eggs and their counterparts GS1 and the customers who purchase eggs from Riverview, on a truly important traceability and stock system, which guarantees the safest eggs to the consumer.”

The main purpose of their visit was to learn from the Irish experience about ensuring traceability in the egg and poultry industry, as well as to see how poultry processing and egg production are organised at Ireland’s leading poultry industry companies.

Commenting on the visit, Managing Director DJ Kelleher remarked “Being recognised on an EU scale, as the standard to emulate, is a testament to our long history of commitment to excellence with particular emphasis on product quality control and safety which is very important to all our customers such as Dunnes, SuperValu, Centra, Tesco Ireland, as well as Pallas Foods and the symbol groups”

Speaking about the traceability scheme, Martin Kelleher, Managing Director, SuperValu said, “SuperValu have enjoyed a long and successful association with Riverview Eggs for over 30 years. We believe in providing our customers with quality produce they can really trust. We are committed to supporting local and Irish suppliers across our business and it is a real endorsement of our quality credentials when suppliers such as Riverview Eggs provide such assurance through their traceability systems. SuperValu has applied numerous traceability innovations in our Own Brand supply chains and we are delighted with this further development by Riverview Eggs which provides additional traceability assurance for Supervalu customers. We recognise the importance of traceability to our consumers and welcome this first in Ireland achievement by Riverview”

The system allows every stock item to be traceable in the event of a swift recall whereby a full program is in place so that when eggs come in from a farm, the full quantity and age of the egg is scanned in at Riverview Eggs’ facility. When the egg is packed, all of that traceability information is put on to the egg, the pack and the outer case and logged into stock on their premises. When the product is exiting the premises, it is scanned out to the particular customer so that if a recall is needed they are able to trace a particular batch from a specific henhouse, which customer those eggs were dispatched to and when they were dispatched.

For the customer, in event of a product recall, a traceability report can be completed very swiftly (within 20 minutes) whereas other systems would not be as robust and can take a number of hours. This system also saves time for the Department of Agriculture when it comes to a reconciliation audit, which can now be completed in seven minutes as opposed to two or three hours with other systems.

Riverview Eggs is a Kelleher family-run business based at Watergrasshill, Co. Cork and is one of the largest producers and packers of both commercial and free-range eggs in Ireland with 24 employees locally and 40 nationally through their family operated farms.

Our Riverview staff were out again in stores to meet and engage with our customers at various Dunnes Stores, Tesco and SuperValu stores around Cork and Kerry promoting our protein-packed nutritious eggs & their versatility.

The Kelleher family of Riverview Eggs, feel very strongly about listening to our customers and to give something back, where possible, for their loyalty to the Riverview brand. Our staff distributed especially made Riverview branded egg cups, flyers and recipe books filled with delicious ideas for meal time. Our Riverview staff were delighted with the opportunity to engage with customers and indeed vice versa!  Keep an eye out for Riverview promotions and giveaways at your local store.

On January 1st 2012 the new EU welfare regulations came into force in the Republic of Ireland and across Europe. Riverview Eggs was fully compliant for this date. This was due to and investment of 6.4million euro in our production base over the past 2 years.

In 2012 Riverview Eggs is again investing in further training and up-skilling of our staff in Food Safety, Critical Control Points (HACCP) and auditing of Food Safety Systems.

We have just completed art work modifications to our packaging and these will be on shelf durin

g September 2012. We hope you like the subtle modernisation to our packaging.

In September 2011 Riverview Eggs was audited against the new Bord Bia Standard and passed with flying colours.

In October 2011, Riverview was again audited to the global food standard – BRC specification. Riverview has again been successful in maintaining our Grade A status with the BRC Global Food Standard Issue 5.

This year Riverview Eggs Ltd has again updated its food safety manual in accordance with the development of the BRC standard to Level 6. We will be audited to this new standard in October 2012.