PERSEVERENCE PAYS

Husband and Wife, Martin and Tracy Hamilton

Self starters need ambition, determination and persistence but most of all tremendous self belief. Dympna O’Callaghan finds out why from Martin Hamilton of Mash Direct.

At the tender age of 16, when he looked at his teacher and thought, ‘Time to move on and make some money’, Martin Hamilton knew he would be self-employed. His entrepreneurial life began in 1971 on his family farm in county Down. Thirty-three years and a number of enterprises later, he set up Mash Direct in 2004, a company which has recently been described as Ireland’s next ‘Innocent’.

Nestled in the idyllic drumlins of county Down, Mash Direct employs 43 people and delivers 1,200 tonnes of finished product per annum to the major supermarkets in Ireland, Scotland and the UK, in addition to local retailers.

Setting up a business in opposition to home cooked or mothers’ mash requires some nerve but that’s exactly what Martin has done; he has even put his mash to the test on a very popular RTE programme and got the thumbs up for quality and taste.

His range of steamed ready-to-cook vegetable products now includes mashed potato; champ; colcannon; carrot, turnip and parsnip; carrot and parsnip; turnip; cheese & onion mash; red cabbage and beetroot; and green cabbage.

From Local To National

It has taken long hours, some changes in business direction, a belief in his dreams, and the support of a team of dedicated people, most especially his wife Tracy to get to where he is today.

“I’m from farming stock and at the age of 16 my brother and I were managing various farming enterprises, both within the family business and independently. At the age of 19 a huge opportunity presented itself; a farm of 134 acres came on the market and with the financial backing of my parents a farm in Greyabbey was bought for £105,000. This created the springboard for everything that has followed,” says Hamilton.

He initially supplied Tayto, his local market, and Scotland, selling 1,000 tonnes of potatoes and vegetables per annum. A visit to Dublin’s Smithfield market in 1990 prompted Hamilton to shift direction and supply washed and graded potatoes to an EUsupported and energetic Ireland. As a result of market changes throughout the farming world in the late 90's a new direction had to be sought.

New Directions

“I learnt a hard lesson; don’t take your markets for granted. Be prepared to meet change head on. With my potato margins suddenly down, I needed another source of income. I was forced to open my mind to other ideas. I set up a fitness business in Belfast and Lisburn, a franchise I bought in from Los Angeles and sold on after two years. I then looked at vegetable crisps, and a golf club; both non-runners. I was a farmer at heart so needed to start thinking ‘outside the box again’,” he adds.

As is often the case in Ireland, a party and a lot of discussion with an old friend, Tony Reid, a structural steel manufacturer, resulted in Hamilton’s decision to diversify from a potato grower to a champ producer. He combined Reid’s manufacturing know-how with his raw materials knowledge and set up Mash Direct on 1st March 2004 with a small team consisting of one van salesman, three production staff and himself.

“Having Reid as my mentor was a great help; he directed the technical side; I concentrated on the farming issues, like soil suitability and its adaptability to new produce. I did get professional help from Queen’s University on soil-related matters. You have to buy in knowledge you don’t possess, work to your strengths,” says Hamilton.

Passionate About Quality

Three years on, Mash Direct now uses 1,000 tonnes of potatoes; 700 tonnes of carrots; 700 tonnes of turnips and parsnips; 20 acres worth of cabbage and a small amount of beetroot annually, all sourced from six working farms in the Comber area.

Hamilton is passionate about quality and will not put anything on the land that it does not need. Quality personifies the man and his business. Hamilton believes in nurturing selfconfidence in his team from his production manager through to farm management and office staff. “A business is the team. If you have to manage it all yourself, something is wrong. You have to give them the latitude to take risks; this will encourage commitment and enthusiasm. You have to inject these qualities into your team,” advises Hamilton.

When asked if entrepreneurs need to be ruthless to succeed, Hamilton emphatically says no, but adds “you have to be ruthless with yourself. I don’t like abusiveness of people; there’s no need to be rude to get on in the world. But you have to be hard on yourself; be unrelenting in turning dreams into reality.”