HEAVENLY BIA
Catherine Macklin is the female creater behind ‘Heavenly Bia’. An authentic wholesale company of wholesome local foods from the Irish land and sea.
She had worked for many years running ‘Heavenly Foods’ in Athlone. A company that supplied and delevered frozen foods to homes nationwide. Catherine is a qualified Accountant and Tax Consultant whom had never envisioned a future in the food industry. During this thime she spotted an opportunity to redevelop and rebrand the ‘heavenly foods’ business, this led to the development of ‘Heavenly Bia’ in 2018 which has been successfully growing under the guidance of Catherine ever since.
‘Heavenly Bia’ supply natural, wholesome delicious Irish produce directly to their customers door. All their food products from the chicken to the beef is 100% traceable back to its Irish source with nothing added to it but pure goodness. They provide a wide range of fish and shellfish caught by the finest fishermen in the great seas and oceans around Ireland. All products have been individually quick frozen to lock in the freshness, preserve taste and protect nutrition profiles. The frozen food boxes contents can be used on a frozen and defrost to use when you need basis making it praticial for busy families and lifestlyes to eat good quality healthy meals. ‘Heavenly bia’ pride themselves on the fact that they want to deliver a service where families do not have to have concern for those unwanted chemicals that find their way onto our plates to often unknowingly.
Catherine commented that the brands target market is “mainly working families and busy professionals who are time poor and need to come home from work and prepare a wholesome dinner knowing that they have a wide choice of chicken, beef, pork or fish in the freezer ready to be cooked”. She also shared that many customers feedback that they “love being able to plan the weeks dinners ahead knowing they have the main component in the freezer, little waste as it stays frozen for 12 months at least and products can be cooked straight from frozen”. She even shared that they help mothers of international college students; “a customer from as far as Texas, ordered online and had the box of food delivered to her son in College in Dublin as a gift!!”.
Catherine took part in ‘The EMPOWER’ female specific entreprenur programme and commented that it helped her in “running a business, as it is a tough and lonely journey.
Some days you have issues regarding administration, HR, logistics etc. I looked forward to our meetings with my fellow peers where I could discuss the issues I had and then we would all brain storm to help come up with answers to the problems. It also enabled me to get the frustrations out and to see that I was not going through these things on my own”. She also enjoyed peer speakers and mentoring provided by the EMPOWER program “learning from real life stories, that yes there are tough days but you can get through them”. Since taking part Catherine has become a guest speaker for the program and commented that she “looks forward to giving this advice back to fresh start-ups and help them learn from some of my experiences in business”.
The vision Catherine would like to see for ‘Heavenly bia’s’ future is to “start selling wholesale to shops and restaurants and concentrate on growing our online sales alongside expanding our team on the road”.