Fruit Brothers full of beans

Lifestyle – Fifty years after Frank Burke bought a truck and started delivering fruit and vegetables to hotels and restaurants in Galway and surrounds, his sons Niall and Ronan are putting their stamp on the business. They’ve continued that service while branching out into office and home delivery. The focus is on local and sustainable, they tell JUDY MURPHY.

“Our wages are paid by us, so if an idea can work, we’ll make it work,” says Niall Burke of the innovations that he and his brother, Ronan, have introduced to the family’s thriving wholesale fruit and veg business in recent years.

Burke’s Fruit and Veg was established 50 years ago this year when their father, Frank, bought a truck and started supplying hotels and restaurants in and around Galway.

Burkes still supply Irish-grown and exotic produce to the catering industry and their clients include some of the country’s top establishment.  Ashford Castle has been a customer for half a century and, more recently, Burkes have been supplying Kai, Loam and Aniar restaurant in the city and the 12 Hotel in Bearna.

From their base in Parkmore, just down the road from their childhood home in Castlegar where their parents Frank and Anne still live, Niall and Ronan now run the business. Niall came on board in 1998 and Ronan, who initially trained as an electrician, joined 12 years ago.

“I always knew I wanted to do this,” says Niall, while Ronan explains that during the recession, it made sense for him “to come back to what I knew”.

They’d been helping Frank since they were in primary school and have fond memories of going on delivery runs with him as children, “knowing all the customers”, says Niall.

In the past few years, the two have diversified into new markets, supplying workplaces and, more recently, homes, with regular boxes of fresh fruit and vegetables. That’s done under the banner of the Fruit Brothers, an offshoot they established in 2018.

“This business is getting more and more competitive all the time and, like any business, the bigger lads are trying to push the smaller lads out, so we said we’d diversify,” says Niall of its origins.

“A few years ago we saw a change in the market,” adds Ronan. “More people were going to the gym before work and were trying to eat healthier.”

“So we started doing fruit boxes for offices,” adds Niall.

The pair developed this model after exploring trends in other cities worldwide and the take-up locally was terrific, with many multi-nationals and local financial companies subscribing as part of creating a healthy working environment for staff.

“Then Covid came,” says Niall. And lockdown affected all parts of the business.

“We had no restaurants, no hotels and no offices. So we moved to home delivery.”

Niall nods: “We’d always wanted to deal directly with people in some way and Covid forced that.”

The move worked, due in large part to their reputation.

“We had a relationship with people who had been in offices and they knew our standards were high,” says Ronan.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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