Member Feature

Burren Smokehouse

Co.Clare

The Burren Smokehouse was founded in Lisdoonvarna by Birgitta and Peter Curtin 33 years ago. The Smokehouse offers visitor experiences, food gifting online and supplies Burren Smoked Irish Organic Salmon to hotels, restaurants, independent retail and Dunnes Store’s Simply Better range. The company have recently entertained the Swedish Royals and provided for the State dinner at the historical visit by Queen Elizabeth II in 2011. Managing Director Birgitta Hedin-Curtin and her team are planning a range of projects to increase brand awareness and grow their business, availing of training opportunities and business supports given by agencies like Bord Bia, BIM, Fáilte Ireland and Enterprise Ireland. The company will be launching a next generation, trilingual website with their food gifting service enhanced with brand new images and intuitively userfriendly functionality. This digital opportunity is supported by project management from Nicola Martin, Insight & Brand Building Specialist in Bord Bia under the Brand Activation Programme. Burren Smokehouse teamed up with Granite, one of Ireland’s largest digital innovations and strategy agency, to achieve new goals. Food Tourism is hugely important to the business and they will launch a website featuring Burren Experiences at their Burren Micro Brewery, The Burren Smokehouse and their gastro pub, The Roadside Tavern. This B2C platform features their VIP and Family Food Tourism Experiences with titles like “Taste the Atlantic – the Salmon Experience” and “Master Class in Smoking Salmon”, plus Burren Brewery beer tasting and whiskey tasting in their gastro pub. Failte Ireland have been very supportive with training and workshops to increase capabilities in digital marketing tools and advice to build this B2C website. “Taste the Atlantic – the Salmon Experience” is their newest visitor experience supported by the partnership of BIM, the Irish Fisheries Bord led by Richard Donnelly, their Aquaculture Business Planning Manager, and Fáilte Ireland, connecting seafood producers along the Wild Atlantic Way. This educational, entertaining, multisensory and interactive exhibition showcases sustainability. It adheres to the United Nations SDG goals as applied to the Irish Seafood Industry explaining all about Irish organic salmon harvested off the wild Atlantic waters of the Irish West Coast, as well as the seasonal catch of wild salmon fishing in Irish rivers. Visitors can experience a shadow play of the story of the Salmon of Knowledge – as the salmon had a major role in Irish mythology. Birgitta realises that integration of all systems is essential to achieve increased efficiencies and accuracy. Going paperless is also part of the company’s sustainability plans. These goals have been set as part of Origin Green and Burren Code of Practice Certifications from year to year.

Birgitta Hedin-Curtin The company availed of the Lean Start programme run by Enterprise Ireland. This is a consultancy process assisting increased integration into the ERP platform, as well as introducing barcode scanning to improve accuracy and efficiencies. She says “We believe in constantly improving our systems and products with NPD, for our Burren Smoked Irish Organic Salmon products as well as eco-friendly packaging.” She has recently re-joined ISME and sees it as an opportunity to engage more with other SME businesses and avail of marketing opportunities. Peter and Birgitta are founding members of the Burren Ecotourism Network that promotes the unique Burren Area, along with other visitor experiences, food producers, restaurants, gastro pubs, microbreweries, whiskey distillers and accommodation providers. Members of the Network are planning the annual Burren Slow Food Festival for the middle of May, when the Burren is in full bloom. Please visit the Burren Smokehouse, which is open daily in the historical village Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare or go to www.burrensmokehouse.ie and www.burrenexperiences.ie Taste the Atlantic – the Salmon Experience at the Burren Smokehouse Visitor Centre