Denis founded Finnebrogue in 1991 – and remains our inspiration.
He spent more than thirty years leading Finnebrogue’s extraordinary growth and was the driving force behind several ground-breaking innovations.
Today, Finnebrogue remains a family business, with Denis’ widow Christine and his daughters, Tara, Ciara, Clare and Kerry playing an active role.
Starting his career by selling pizzas and pies out of a little white van, Denis soon discovered a new French fry and became the largest customer of Lord Chips in Europe, using the money raised to buy the beautiful 600 acre Finnebrogue estate in 1991.
During the 1990s, he was a beef farmer and then a deer farmer. Denis established Finnebrogue as the leading farmer and processor of deer in the UK, supplying Michelin star restaurants, top supermarkets and celebrity chefs.
Since then, he was at the heart of many food revolutions, from the posh dog to nitrite-free bacon. In five years from 2015, he opened four state-of-the-art factories, grew the business’s turnover to nearly £150m and built one of the best teams in the food industry, which is now pressing ahead with realising Denis’s vision.
Through his charity work, Denis helped to eradicate childhood malaria deaths in an entire district of southern Malawi, supported Cancer Fund for Children and helped to tackle holiday hunger long before it was fashionable.
A decade ago he partnered with Fareshare to ensure thousands of warm meals were making their way to families that needed them.
In 2018, the Institute of Directors named Denis the UK’s most innovative business leader of the year. Today he remains our inspiration.
“The problem with bacon is dead simple. Bacon contains nitrites, nitrites produce nitrosamines in your gut and nitrosamines are carcinogenic. Nitrites should not be in food.
“I’ve been all over the world to figure out a way to make bacon without nitrites – and up to now we’d never made a single rasher of bacon because we couldn’t work out how to do it. For more than a decade I have insisted we not touch bacon until such time as we can make it better and safer – and now we have.
“Our Naked Bacon is not only safer than any other bacon on the market, it also tops the charts in blind taste tests. This really is the biggest revolution to the British breakfast for a generation.”
Call us: 02844 619 300
Email us: hello@finnebrogue.com
Media Enquiries: press@finnebrogue.com
