Tesco deal is icinge cake for the div on thneys

Alan Divney left Breaffy and Castlebar as a nine year old in 1977. Life has been good to him since, writes Tom Shiel.

The now 46-year-old is managing director of Farmbake, the cake distributor which has signed a supply deal with Tesco that will increase the cake company’s revenue by around €2 million a year.

The deal will see Farmbake supply all of Tesco’s 148 Irish stores, and is an extension of a previous deal that saw it supply 28 stores. The new contract will bring the number of Farmbake products sold in Tesco stores to just over one million units annually, Farmbake said.

Farmbake’s range includes almond fingers, fruit tarts, queen cakes, bakewell tarts, apple turnovers and swiss rolls. It also distributes Mr. Kipling, Cadbury and Coolmore, Gateaux and Balconi cake products.

Alan Divney told a national daily newspaper recently that he started to learn the tricks of the business and retail trade in the ‘boreens of Mayo’. In 1908, his grandfather started Divney’s grocery shop in Breaffy, where Curry’s Shop now stands.

Grandad Divney set up a small travelling shop during World War Two. “I remember my grandfather collecting me from school in the summers and taking me out in his travelling shop around the boreens of Mayo,” said Mr. Divney.

He added: “Not only was that magical as a child, it taught me how to deal with customers. I learned that the customer is always right – and that people respect honesty. If you’re going to succeed in business, customers have to trust you.”

Alan’s father, Jim, took his wife, Ruby, and three children, Alan, Helena and Nicky, to Dublin in 1977. Jim, now 71, is hale and hearty and very much involved in the running of the company.

The company has 32 employees. Twenty-two trucks trundle out every day delivering cakes to 2,500 stores around the country.

When I spoke to Jim Divney on the phone last Friday it was obvious he is proud of the success of Farmbake. “It’s bloody hard work though,” he conceded, “terribly hard work.”

Alan Divney was educated for a time at St. Patrick’s Boys National School, Castlebar, before he left for Dublin. His sister, Helena, is also involved in the business.