The ‘Project Exemplar’ award recognises exceptionally high levels of innovation and collaboration between a firm, their graduate and an academic as part of the InterTradeIreland FUSION programme.
ABC manufactures and distributes products for sports nutrition, meal replacement and general health nutrition. The company gains its competitive advantage through its capability to develop products that are unique to each customer. ABC’s routes to market are via distributors and direct to chains of stores across Ireland, the UK and 15 additional countries in mainland Europe.
The FUSION project involved ABC partnering with the Northern Ireland Centre for Food and Health in the University of Ulster with the support of InterTradeIreland graduate, Ann Marie Coleman. Ann Marie worked for ABC for the 12 month duration of the project, which was completed in January 2015, and has since been offered a role as a product developer with the company.
Sean McNamara, from ABC, commented: “We are delighted that our innovation has been recognised and are proud to accept our Exemplar award. The FUSION project has brought us new products and customers as well as a developing lifestyle nutrition business, while freeing up valuable strategic management time to drive business growth. We are delighted that involvement in this project also allowed us to increase export sales by just under €170,000 in year one alone with a projected value of more than €500k by year three.”
Alan Morrow, from InterTradeIreland, added: “Being selected for this award signifies that the FUSION project has been a great success for all parties. In this case the company reformulated products and realised cost reductions through increased flavour knowledge; the academic institute had a unique opportunity to become involved in a sports and lifestyle nutrition commercial project, which has enhanced teaching, while the graduate has gained valuable experience and a permanent job with ABC. Congratulations to all of the team on its hard work and innovation throughout this project.”
