Looking to the future
Derek, Peter, Tom and Ross Keogh with the potatoes that make the crisp.
by Jade French
From crop to crisp, Keogh’s is a family-run business, founded in North County Dublin on a basis of 200 years of potato-farming experience. In 2011, they turned their attention to making proper, hand-cooked crisps with an emphasis on small-batch production, high standards and strong flavours. They’re Irish through-and-through, bringing local ingredients and suppliers to 20 countries, including the USA and UEA.
The Keoghs are also keen to collaborate and exchange knowledge and skills. In collaboration with development agency Vita, they have helped to establish potato cultivation in Southern Ethiopia — providing fresh water, tools and the tips and tricks Keogh’s has honed over hundreds of years. The relationship was symbiotic notes founder Tom Keogh in an Origin Green piece: “Vita’s carbon reduction programme has enabled our family business to offset our carbon emissions while bettering the lives of many Ethiopian families at the same time”.
More recently, Keogh’s has been giving back closer to home with their #IrelandThanksYou campaign, dedicated to raising money for key workers on the frontline. The campaign came to life when two brothers, Senan (aged 5) and Jonah Brady (aged 7), posted a picture of potato heads dressed as frontline workers on Keogh's Facebook page.
This inspired Tom Keogh, husband to a nurse, to create a campaign that simply put a 'thank you' into the hands of frontline healthcare workers across Ireland. The campaign raised €95K and thanked 950 workers, creating goodwill for the brand in the process.
In terms of brand identity, the company occupies a positive position; from a consumer perspective, they stand for honest ingredients, small batch production and tempting flavours. Packaging also speaks to the crisp producer’s wholesome credentials and emphasises the ‘family’ angle — in 2017 Keogh’s enlisted a local illustrator to create fresh new designs, incorporating the many Irish suppliers, family members and iconic landmarks that have shaped the brand over the years.
According to the company, Innovation and change are at the heart of the brand. They are capitalising on a huge appetite for the ‘real deal’, with their customers now looking to order crisps directly from the farm — and 2020 saw Keogh’s develop an e-commerce site to allow customers to do just that. More recently, there has been a strong response to their Bucket O’Crisps campaign for Christmas 2020.
The impact of powerful storytelling can be clearly seen within the Keogh’s identity, with their engaging ‘farm to fork’ theme proving a hit with buyers. Reactive, passionate and with an eye on the future, Keogh’s is an Irish brand with a global reach.
New packaging created in 2019 incorporates Irish suppliers, family members and iconic landmarks.