It’s something we’ve wanted to know for years, and we finally have an answer from the man who created Buffalo Hunky Dorys.
Raymond Coyle is a former farmer from Ashbourne in County Meath who is best known for taking over the ownership of Tayto Crisps in the mid-2000s, before going on to build Tayto Park in his home town.
Speaking to host Tadhg Enright on The Architects of Business, in partnership with EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™, Raymond explains his reason for setting up the Hunky Dorys brand and how his commercial interest in a herd of bison led to the creation of the famous buffalo-flavoured Hunky Dorys.
“I have buffalos. I keep buffalos as a hobby, also commercially. They’re the American bison. We sort a certain amount of them every year. We decided because we had bison, and a lot of people were interested in the media, we’d bring out a buffalo-flavoured potato chip.”
When pressed by Enright, he revealed the secret formula behind the crisps and whether or not they’re suitable for vegetarians.
Listen from 11:20 to find out what REALLY goes into one of Ireland’s favourite crisps.
Raymond – an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Finalist in 2011 – also revealed the genius idea that helped him to pay off his massive £1.2m debt to the Irish banks in the early 1980s, an idea that would allow him to go on and form Largo Foods.
“I saw a guy down in Wexford raffling a boat, a 12-foot boat, I think it was 10 shillings at the time – with 50 or 60 people in it. I thought, on the way back, I was driving a lorry on the way back, ‘if he can raffle a boat I’ll raffle a farm’,” he told Enright.
“So we got legal advice and all the rest of it, Coopers & Lybrand at the time were the auditors and the solicitors held the money and we came up with the idea – which we’d sell ourselves – 4,000 tickets at £300 a ticket.”
The Architects of Business, brought to you in partnership with EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ , is available every Monday morning on iTunes, SoundCloud and YouTube.
