The rise and rise of the hot nut

The rise and rise of the hot nut

Many pub and cinema operators here will already know how popular hot nuts can be with customers. The Belfast father-and-son team behind the biggest local distributor of the snack – Cachi Foods – have been telling LCN about plans to expand their distribution network further into Great Britain and beyond…

Belfast man, John Kielt (53) and his son, James (29) are the drivers behind Cachi Foods, a local brand of crispy coated, hot nuts that’s currently soaring in popularity across the hospitality and leisure markets in Northern Ireland.

The Cachi brand first began appearing in NI outlets in 2014, but the hot nuts have been popular among local snack lovers here, in various guises, since the early 90s when John’s brother-in-law, Mark McGinley introduced them to Ireland under the brand name, Nut Cellar.

The brand name switched to Mendoza in 2006 – a name which will still be familiar to many NI consumers today – and when Mark and his family decided to emigrate to Australia in 2006, John and James bought the firm from him and continued to build the business.

“Then, in 2014, we decided to take the plunge and developed our own private label, ‘Cachi’, which we are now distributing throughout Ireland, GB and into Europe,” John told LCN recently.

Cachi hot nuts have been specially developed with a tasty crisp coating which allows them to be heated and reheated safely. They are manufactured by a producer in The Netherlands for Cachi Foods in Belfast and were initially very popular in the pub market here:

“That was a great market for us up until about 2009 or 2010,” recalled John. “Then, because of the downturn and its effect on the pub trade, that began to change and, as a result, we began to diversify our business quite a bit, particularly into the cinema and leisure sector.”

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There are other hot nut sellers trading in Northern Ireland, but Cachi has the lion’s share of the market at present and is currently pushing hard to expand its markets in the Republic of Ireland, GB and Europe.

“I would say that 45 per cent of our sales are in Northern Ireland today, the rest of our territories are developing and we’re particularly keen to see progress in GB,” added John.

The nuts themselves are distributed in venues via a variety of handy machines supplied by Cachi – most familiar to pub-goers here would likely be the scoop-and-serve system and automated portion control dispensers which allow staff to easily dispense the nuts to customers in tubs. Other solutions are available though, including traditional vending machines.

“The nuts are very moreish and our clients will say to us that people really do like them,” said John. “Also, they have extremely attractive profit margins of anything up to 60 per cent for retailers that take them on.”

John’s son, James is the well-known face of the business and the person most clients would be used to meeting. It’s a role he’s thrived in for the last nine years or so despite losing one of his legs when he was just five days old and undergoing a kidney transplant operation in 2012.

“Despite the significant personal hurdles that James has had to overcome, he has worked with passion and dedication to help me build this business over the last nine years,” said John. “The service he has given has been second to none.

“It’s fair to say that in recent years, we have taken huge risks with the business and invested heavily in it in terms of money and time. But it has undoubtedly been worth it. It’s been hard work. We’re pushing for volumes now, but when you have your own private label, you can’t just order small quantities. You have to be looking at large quantities of nuts at a time, so that takes careful planning and you have to know that the market is there for the product.”

That said, however, John confirms that the business has performed beyond expectations. Over the last three years, Cachi has been growing by more than 20 per cent year-on-year.

“Now we are focused on building the markets, we want to see our brand expand and we’re very keen to see the business grow,” added John. “We are focused on increasing our distribution in GB and in Europe, but we have no plans for any further brands or varieties at this stage. Speed and simplicity are important when selling this product and we have found this is best served with a single variety and flavour of nut.”