Blazing a Trail...

When Pamela Fitzmaurice won the Dublin Female Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2005, few who know her could have been surprised. Certainly, the award sponsors, Dublin City Enterprise Board had been long aware of her talent and dedication...

As well as that of her sister Lorraine and brothers Joseph and Martin, who together own and operate one of Dublin’s most intriguing, forward looking and businesslike food operations. The genesis of the business was in 1998 when Pamela joined Lorraine who had a restaurant, Blazing Salads, in the Powerscourt Townhouse Centre. Two years later it was decided to sell the restaurant and open a whole food deli instead. “It was the best move we ever made”, recalls Pamela.

Relocated to 42 Drury Street, close to the original location and in the busy Grafton Street, Wicklow Street area of the south city centre, Blazing Salads today confirms the correctness of the decision to change the direction of the business. The change in direction anticipated the growing engagement of people with healthier and more nutritious organic foods. They had foreseen the retreat from the burger, at least by Dublin’s more knowledgeable and taste conscious classes.

Problems of success

Blazing Salads is a cornucopia of healthy delights and everything, other than the breads baked by brothers Joseph and Martin, are made on site. Turnover is touching €700,000. “We increased sales by 40% in 2005,”says Pamela. “Our staff has increased from five to fifteen. We are just busy all the time.” However, even to the casual observer it is obvious that the present site is constricted. “Yes we are under pressure for space. “We now want our own property,”she adds. Though they are separate businesses, cooperation between the deli and the bakery has been close with information, problems and successes shared. The bakery too needs larger premises and will hire more people when space permits. According to Joseph Fitzmaurice the Blazing Salads Bread Company opened in October 2004 at Butterly Business Park, Kilmore Road, Artane, Dublin 5. “We currently bake seven types of bread that are organic and yeast free, using only unblended flour. We are now supplying more than 20 outlets,”he adds.

Recently, the bakery invested €100,000 in new bakery equipment. Of that, €40,000 was a Capital  Grant from Dublin City Enterprise Board with the remainder funded from the Fitzmaurices’ own resources. “We had a good business plan and our research showed that there was a very positive future for our products. Unfortunately, the banks were not as positive, so we self finance. I think they regret that now,” he says.

Food Philosophy

The success of the Fitzmaurice clan is rooted in their philosophy of using only the best and healthiest ingredients. At the bakery, which has organic certification, only certified organic stone ground flours are used. There are no artificial flour improvers, enhancers, colourings, bleaches or chemical additives in use. Where salt is used it is natural sea salt. All breads are made by hand. It is a similar story at the deli where sugar and artificial flavourings are banned. “We sweeten with organic mapel syrup, apple concentrate and brown rice syrup,” explains Pamela. “Our soy sauce does not contain sugar, caramel or m.s.g. and our oils are not bleached.”

The Blazing Salads menu is keenly priced and offers great variety with favourite standards and daily specials. All of their food is sugar free and yeast free. (vg) vegan, (wf) wheat free, (sf) sugar free, (yf) yeast free. Perhaps even better still, the Fitzmaurice family are happy to share the secrets of their success with the rest of us in their delightful cookbook written by Lorraine, Joe and Pamela and published by Gill & McMillan.

Photograph: Pamela FitzMaurice with Pat Lynch, Chairman of DCEB.

Blazing Salads Food Company 42 Drury Street, Dublin 2 T: 01 671 9552

Blazing Salads Bread Company T: 01 877 5679 W: www.blazingsalads.com

© 2005 Dublin City Enterprise Board. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without the permission from the D.C.E.B.

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