Last week we carried the story of Fulfil Nutrition coming on board as the official snack partner of the FAI. Today we dive a little deeper into the back story of the brand with co-founder Niall McGrath and reveal that it would stand up alongside any of the tales of endeavour that mark out sport.
“I worked for a long time in the food and drink sector as part of Richmond Marketing and was always interested in how great brands built their success through getting the right product and telling the right story,” McGrath told us in a wide ranging interview.
“My co-founder Tom Gannon and I have been players and coaches in football all our lives and when Tom went on a big weight loss programme looking at diet and exercise, part of his success was down to protein bars. They seemed hard to eat however and while the results were good we began to think how they might be made more attractive.”
Nickelodeon
“I was sitting with the kids one day watching Nickelodeon on the TV and an ad came on for a candy making machine. I thought why not, got one and started to experiment with making up different kinds of bars with added protein.”
“To be honest they were dreadful but the idea had taken hold and we began to look at it as a serious business venture.”
“We researched ingredients, put a lot of effort into branding and found the right manufacturing company that could get us up and running.”
“In January 2016 we put our first bar out into the market with a business plan to sell one million units in the first twelve months. By December that number had climbed to 15 million.”
Such a staggering product launch never happens by chance though their were elements along the way, relevant to the FAI deal, that did have an element of luck about them.
“Distribution was always going to be key and once people got to taste the bars they were easily able to see them.”
“Topaz had faith in putting us up front in their stores for what was originally to be a six week trail but we were still there, on merit of strong sales, nine months later.”
In convenience stores up and down the country Fulfil is the lead bar within the protein snack displays and they themselves are getting bigger all the time.
Euro’s
“We are both big football fans, and were out at the Euro’s following Ireland this summer.”
“Just after we got back I got a call from a friend of mine who was with Jeff Hendrick and Rob Brady in Paris airport getting ready to fly back.”
“He told me the lads were munching away on our bars and loving them.”
“I dropped a few boxes off the the FAI the next time the lads came back into camp and then as they spread them around we dropped a few more.”
Karl Heffernan from the FAI picked up the phone and said ‘we need to talk’ and the time was right for us to step up our profile out of stores.
“The partnership is all about bringing the brand to every level of football, from elite through to grassroots.”
“We are both up coaching in Portmarnock two and three times a week and we know that the passing skills machine which is part of the sponsorship will be a winner for clubs.”
“It will be busy over the next three years. We’ve got exciting plans for using it with the players in a number of social media ways but primarily it will be there for development officers to bring it out into the sport and make a difference.”
Given the success that McGrath and Gannon have had in building the business from scratch we have no doubt they will be active in making the partnership work with the FAI and that should prove a winner in more ways than one.
Sport for Business will be at Three HQ in Dublin this morning for the naming of the squad for the forthcoming World Cup Qualifier against Wales and friendly against Iceland, and catching up with Three on their commercial plans around the return of international football to the Aviva Stadium next week.
