Hi °C | Lo °C What started out as a cottage industry in a Co Down kitchen for one entrepreneurial husband and wife team has evolved into a potentially lucrative deal with supermarket giant Tesco.
David and Jill Crawford used to rush home from work every night to toast their homemade granola recipe in their oven.
But now they're counting their blessings after Tesco agreed to market three lines of their Just Live a Little brand of granola and toasted muesli at 19 Tesco stores across Northern Ireland.
It follows a deal last summer which saw Crawford's Foods sign an export deal worth around £20,000 with Hong Kong's biggest grocery business to sell their baked oats there.
The latest deal could mean an expansion in their tiny workforce of "two and a half" and further renovation of the outbuildings on their property which they had the foresight to purchase when they moved from Belfast to Portaferry a few years ago.
It will come on top of previous expansion which came swiftly after they soon realised their delicious product could no longer be confined to one domestic oven.
Mr Crawford is assisted in their home business by one other employee, while Mrs Crawford devotes whatever time she can to the business. She fits it in around her full-time work, in a completely different field, and around their two young children.
It was when they were selling another product, Clandeboye Estate Yogurt, which Mr Crawford was involved with creating, that their granola emerged as a potential commercial winner.
"I was selling the yogurt at St George's Market and Jill had this recipe for granola and she made it to let people try with the yogurt and people started asking if they could buy the granola," he said.
Soon after, Hastings Hotels chief executive Howard Hastings came into the picture with his intention to source locally produced products for his hotel chain.
Mr Crawford said the hotel mogul was equally won over by their product and soon scooped up the Crawfords' wholesome breakfasts for its guests.
Later, Mr and Mrs Crawford finally decided "let's just go for this" and in March they launched the Just Live a Little range.
Mr Crawford said he could not put an exact figure on the Tesco deal in these still, early days, but said he hoped the lucky hand they've been dealt will act as a spring board to a further expansion into Tesco nationwide.
They hope to expand into the Irish market, the Scottish breakfast market, as well as the London and south east of England areas.
Hopes are even high in the early part of the new year that online deals, linked to mighty US chain and Asda parent Walmart and another with Amazon, might soon be on the cards too.
But until then, shoppers in Northern Ireland will get the chance to sample their breakfast offering during sample tastings at Tesco throughout January.
3
Lines of granola to be marketed by retail giant19
Number of Tesco stores selling Just Live a Little£20,000
Export deal signed with a Hong Kong business
€3.6m
Advanced Marketing NI's joint distribution deal
€8bn
Worth of Irish grocery market in 1994
