Making lolly with Limerick veggie pops

IRELAND is set to become Europe’s most obese nation within the next decade, with some estimates suggesting we will be the fattest people in the world by 2030.

Yet there’s still time for us to defy those rather gloomy predictions.

A good start might be to replace those chocolate-coated, sugar-loaded treats in our shopping bags with some Wellnice Pops; the all natural, vegetable and fruit juice ice pops made in Limerick by two local women.

The brainchild of BJ Broderick and Trín O’Brien, Wellnice Pops are, in essence, ice pops made from vegetables.

And it’s far removed from the image of brussel sprouts on a stick. For not only are Wellnice Pops good for you, they are also tasty, incredibly tasty.

By supplementing their product with natural fruit juices, BJ and Trín have ensured Wellnice Pops are sweet enough to appeal to the younger market while maintaining their healthiness.

“The whole idea was that we wanted it to be a vegetable product,” explains BJ, “the vegetables had to be the star of the show, so to speak. But we put a bit of fruit juice in there to help sweeten them a little bit.”

Having only started the business in April of last year, BJ and Trín have made huge strides in a short space of time. With a background in nutrition, BJ was keen to bring something new to the market, something different.

She and Trín got to thinking, and within days Wellnice Pops was born.

“I said to Trín: ‘You know what? No matter what kind of dietary protocol you’re following, nobody tells you not to eat vegetables’. Everybody wants you to eat vegetables!’ So that’s where it came from really.”

Idea in place, they began production. Setting up in BJ’s kitchen in her native Tournafulla, they set about perfecting their flavours, and, after a few local tasting sessions, they were ready to announce Wellnice Pops to the world.

But with no retailer in place, the girls were forced to think outside the box. After all what was the point in having a great product if you’ve got nowhere to sell it?

They decided to hit the festival circuit. However, this brought its own set of complications.

“We approached the festivals first and we had this idea that we could bring in a little stand and they were like ‘have you seen the Irish weather?'”, explains Trín, “so, we made our Pop Shack, the little cafe that we sell out of.”

Ever the entrepreneurs, BJ and Trín saved on costs by building the Pop Shack themselves.

“We kinda thought ‘well all we really need is a little shed’, so we built a shed and put it on a trailer, and put a grass roof on it”, says Trín with a smile.

While reaction at the nation’s festivals was mostly positive, Wellnice Pops quickly found a much larger audience.

Having been accepted on the Bord Bia sponsored Food Academy Programme, BJ and Trín found themselves pitching their idea to marketing executives at Super Valu.

That pitch went well, so well that Super Valu agreed to stock Wellnice Pops at fifteen of their stores throughout the country. “It was a pleasant surprise,” says BJ, bashfully.

But don’t mistake bashfulness for lack of ambition, these Limerick ladies have big plans, global plans.

“We want to export, that’s always been part of our plan since day one,” says BJ.

You would assume that any plans to export would involve trips to warmer climes, places where people need healthy ice-pops to help them cool down. But, according to BJ, that’s not necessarily the case.

“That’s what we thought originally as well, to go somewhere hot. But apparently you need to go to Scandinavia and northern Europe.”

So, you need to go to really cold countries to sell ice products? Isn’t that like selling snow to Eskimos? ”

They’re into health,” explains Trín, “and they eat a lot of ice-cream and ice-pops.”

In order to expand the brand, BJ and Trín realised that they needed further expertise, business acumen, that kind of thing. To this end, they applied for a place on this year’s New Frontiers Programme, a national entrepreneurship programme for early stage high-potential start-up companies.

Of course, they earned a place on the programme, and with it access to the kind of expertise needed to implement their export plan.

“I want to take any help we can get,” says BJ, “I didn’t study business in school so it’d be great to get a formal business type education as well. But the big plan for us is that at the end of the six months, we would have an export ready plan.”

However while BJ and Trín have their sights set firmly on global domination they are fully aware of the social issues in their own country, issues which they hope products like theirs can help address.

“They’re saying Ireland and the UK are going to be the most obese nations in Europe. And coming from the nutrition side of things. That would have been a big concern, a big consideration for me,” says BJ.

“I think that we really have to start in national school. Ideally the minute they’re born at home, but the minute you get them to school you have to try and start educating them. Kids are brilliant, they’re so receptive to things. We found that, even at tastings, some of them were straight up ‘Oh it’s a carrot and an ice-pop, of course I want to taste it!’

“But you’ve got to give them a chance.”