Based in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, Castle Free Range Eggs is a Bord Bia approved free range egg producer and packer which supplies to the domestic, commercial and catering trades. Grocery & Retail Ireland spoke with Edel Carty (Quality Management) to hear all about the current state of business for the company and its plans for further expansion.
Castle Free Range Eggs is coming up on 40 years in business and today stands as one of Ireland’s leading producers of free-range eggs.
Set-up by Hugh John Patton and his wife Mary, the two are joined in the business by their daughters Sinead, Amanda, Edel and sons Hugh John Jnr, Brendan and Michael.
Hugh John snr and Brendan manage the family business which is situated in Wardtown Castle, Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, where there are three houses in operation and nearly 30,000 hens inside of them.
Grocery & Retail Ireland touched base with Edel Carty recently to discuss the ins and outs of the company and what she feels separates it from the competition.
“The egg company itself would’ve been established nearly 40 years ago,” she outlined.
“We’re all involved in the business, so there’s myself and then my brother Brendan and dad Hugh John manage the company.
“As a family, we all are involved one way or another, so there’s six kids in total (three boys and three girls). My sister Sinead is a veterinary nurse, so she helps out with the welfare, my brother Michael helps out with the maintaining of the units of the sheds, Hugh John jnr would be there to help out with the machinery maintenance.”
The origins of Castle Free Range Eggs date back to the mid-1980s in a time where Edel’s mother Mary seized an exciting opportunity for both her and her family.
Mary and her husband Hugh John would start off with just 50 hens and, as the demand grew bigger, so did their company.
“Mom had a few backyard hens and she used to bring them into the local store just to sell them. She only had maybe a dozen hens and she realised that there was a market because people were actually fighting over the eggs in the shop,” Edel explained.
“So, she realised there was a need for it and her and my dad invested in their first shed which was 1,000 hens at the time. They built it up from there over the years and worked incredibly hard at it, and it was really them that pushed it when they were younger.
“We’re kind of unique in a way that we’re a family farm here and we sell direct to the store. We produce and pack all our own eggs and we bring it direct to store. We’re not selling to a distribution where it takes a few weeks to be processed. It’s literally the same day of lay that the eggs can be in the store and sometimes is the case for the busy summer season.
“We produce and pack all our own and supply a number of stores, restaurants and B&Bs, so we do SuperValu and Centra and a lot of stores like that as well. We’ve got great support in our local area and, at the moment, we’re nearly 30,000 hens and are fully Bord Bia approved for a number of years.”
Today, Castle Free Range Eggs has three operational bird houses catering for their ever-expanding customer base that includes retailers such as Tescos, Super Valu, Centra, Spar and Mace, as well as hotels and restaurants in all throughout Donegal and surrounding areas including Sligo and Leitrim.
Business is thriving for the company at present and the team in Wardtown Castle mean to keep it that way for the foreseeable.
“Business has been very good,” Edel said of the last 12 months. “We’re in a very lucky position that, with us supplying direct to the customer, there’s a great relationship there.
“I feel that we have very loyal customers and they always come back to us. So, our business has been busier than ever but it obviously has been difficult with the rise in cost of feed and electricity has had an impact. Packaging and everything have increased as well, but, no, it’s been going well.”
So, all of that considered, the clear question is what has been the secret behind the success of Castle Free Range Eggs to date?
How has a small start with just a couple of dozen hens grown into what is now one of the country’s leading producers of free-range eggs?
For Edel, a lot of it comes down to the high-quality standards that her parents set from beginning being continuously delivered year after year.
“I think the reason they (customers) choose us is because we have a good reputation with our customers. It’s always top quality and what you receive is of a very high standard,” she stated.
“We take great pride in our product and they know what they’re getting is fresh and they know exactly where it’s come from. We produce and pack all our own eggs, so it leaves us in that unique position where literally if they want to see where they’re produced, they can see it for themselves.
“We’ve built up a reputation over the years of having a good customer base.”
Producing such a high-quality product takes expertise and, of course, the right personnel and equipment to see it through week in, week out.
To that end, it’s no surprise to hear that in the past year the Pattons have invested big in a state-of-the-art egg grader to ensure that the products with the ‘Castle Free Range Eggs’ logo on them remain the best out there.
“We’re always trying to expand. We’re always pushing ourselves to expand further every year,” Edel stated.
“As I say, we have a number of other businesses running alongside the farm, so we’re constantly trying to grow and diversify the farm. Last year, we bought a new egg grader for the packing centre which was close to €500,000, so we’re always trying to push forward and increase while keeping the same level of quality. We have plans to increase more over the coming years.”
She concluded: “We have kind of decided to try and expand and maybe put in another unit over the next 12 months and, hopefully, just go from there and see how things go.”
Castle Free Range Eggs
Wardtown Castle,
Ballyshannon,
Co Donegal
Tel: (071) 985 1280
First published in Grocery & Retail Ireland magazine Vol 3 No 3, Winter 2024
Castle Free Range Eggs, featured
