Kiwi Matthew Brownie turns his Skibbereen solo into a national player.

Kiwi Matthew Brownie turns his Skibbereen solo into a national player.

More good news for Matthew today (Nov 24th). The firm has been short-listed
as a finalist in the SFA National Small Business Awards 2026 in the Innovation category.

Matthew Brownie, Skibbereen’s ebullient Kiwi is unstoppable. Since he founded the Skibbereen Food Company 12 short years ago he has managed (among many other activities) to combine the development of tasty snack products with catchy names into an astounding national success.

The trend goes on. At the recent Ballymaloe Craft Fair, I met up with the Kiwi and he introduced me to, wait for it, Don’t Touch My Coco Nuts! Who’d go to market with a name like that? Matthew would, and has. 

His first success in snacks was the “pigalicious” Scratch my Pork (with an optional OINK!). The new Baked Coconut Clusters are quite a treat, delicious for a quick snack on the go and one or two of the clusters will happily accompany your mid-morning cup of coffee. It is another gem to take its place in his terrific ranges of yummy snacks. More at https://skibbereenfoodco.com/ theskibbfoodco.

For years, chef and founder Matthew Brownie believed he “knew too little” to build a major Irish food brand.  But if you know Brownie, you know he keeps on keeping on even when its easier to quit. He's a chef who used "every spare minute to grow something of his own. A single employee company that outperformed expectations". Perhaps he knew too little but he knew enough to keep going.

I asked Matthew where does the company stand now.

"Today, the brand stands at a turning point. With national distribution through Rose
Confectionery, six major retail listings, new innovative products on the way, and a surge in
demand, Skibbereen Food Company is accelerating into its strongest chapter yet."

These didn't last long!

Whats the driver here?

Matthew: "Rose Confectionery has already made a big leap on the brand, a partnership that instantly pushed The Skibbereen Food Company onto the national stage.Their distribution power, relationships, and ability to scale brands have transformed what was once a one-person operation into a household-recognised name with nationwide visibility. Rose Confectionery believed in the vision.  They saw something in my products and my story and they acted fast." 

Twelve years on and it is no longer a solo run for the Kiwi who says " this partnership becomes more than logistics; it’s a validation". Over the years, Matthew pushed the brand forward store by store, pub by pub, while balancing a full-time Head Chef position job, raising a family, and navigating financial pressures. He can look back with some satisfaction: "Despite exhaustion, motivation dips, and hard years, the brand never lost momentum, and eventually reached a point where national distributors and retailers could no longer ignore it."

First product, in its modest 2015 packaging

The present:

Distributed nationally by Rose Confectionery

Listed in six Irish retail chains

Selling strongly through 30 pubs

Growing through online channels

Another in Matthew's range of tasty snacks!

The Next Chapter: Innovation

Preparing for a New Zealand market trial

Turnover is now expected to triple.

The Skibbereen Food Company is entering a new creative phase, with multiple new products

under development for 2025.




Coming Soon

A new high-protein snack range developed for the Irish Market

Gift sets of Scratch My Pork Range for Christmas 2026

A collaboration with another local food and drink company

A new line of innovative products that Rose Confectionery is preparing to launch nationwide

The brand’s innovation pipeline is now one of its biggest strengths, and a key reason

distributors and retailers are moving quickly.

No Plans to Stop Any Time Soon

Matthew built the company from scratch (his original product was Scratch My Pork). He was doing much more through, cooking on Ireland AM, developing a cookbook with 50 recipes, working as a Demonstration Chef, returning to college for a Level 8 in Culinary Entrepreneurship, Matthew never stopped learning, evolving, or creating.  He's back in coillage again, this time lecturing!  "I enjoy it," he insisted at Ballymaloe. Looks like he has no intention of slowing down any time soon.

Products are widely available. For more on Matthew and the Skibbereen Food Company and the online shop, click here https://skibbereenfoodco.com/

UK – Here We Come. The Skibbereen Food Company's Piggy Products Hit the Shelves in Sainsbury’s in March.

UK – Here We Come

The Skibbereen Food Company

Piggy Products Hit the Shelves in Sainsbury’s

Matthew with some of his "hogalicious" products

Nine years on from an idea Matthew Brownie had from CIT in Cork, to winning the Best Business Plan for The CIT Innovation Award 2013, The Skibbereen Food Company (TSFC) goes from strength to strength from National coverage in Ireland to international markets in the UK with his successful Scratch My Pork and Pork Crunch ranges.

Amazon in the UK has been a great exposure for The Skibbereen Food Company which now has a 30 different snack products offering from 250g bulk bags of Pork Crackling to Pork Crunch to the branded 30g bags on the ready to go Clipstrip.

Matthew tells me that his “hogalicious products” are still selling strongly in his local area in West Cork. The Irish market continues to grow with new establishments stocking The Skibbereen Food Companies piggy products. Not forgetting Pembrokeshire in Wales where the first breakthrough came for him in overseas markets.

You'll find these in Sainsbury's next month.

The latest big news came at the start of December 2020 when four of Matthew’s products got accepted to be placed in 219 Sainsbury’s superstores that go live in March, which is something Matthew had been set on since the day he started his company

“This is very exciting news for me and my family, but pressure also comes with going into a major retailer in the UK. Being able to deliver and having scalability is a must in meeting all of Sainsbury’s requirements.

The company is going exactly where I want it to go and I set my goals 3 years ago to achieve this. From a local perspective I’m delighted to share the success with Skibbereen and West Cork, knowing that The Skibbereen Food Company logo will be proudly showcased around Sainsbury’s stores with the UK consumer enjoying my snacks.

SECAD Partnership / LEADER / Cork County Council and AIB bank has been a big part of TSFC moving forward with funding along Local West Cork Enterprise board. I have also started my own cooking YouTube channel that is proving to be a big hit."


What next from the Kiwi, the self-styled Culchie Chef?