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04th Jul 2018

If you’ve ever wondered what Buffalo-flavoured Hunky Dorys are made of, we have the answer

Tony Cuddihy

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