Foodies on the Move

George McGee returns to Ireland to start a new venture. George McGee leaves Opera Foods Group, now a well established foodservice distributor with multiple gourmet brands.

Foodies George and Jane McGee jetted out to a new appointment in Ireland on a Sunday in 2015 as George takes up his new position as Director Sales & Branding at his newly established food business next week.

George is one of three partners that have come together to establish a new food manufacturing and distribution group in Ireland. Bold early moves by the group include the acquisition of the Gookies brand label and the repurchase of a large bakery formerly owned by George in county Cork.

Gookies is a gourmet cookie manufacturer that specialises in packaged cookie dough ready in a tube-shaped package for consumers to cut and bake at home.  George hopes to take that brand across Europe and has big plans for other multinational food product brands.

He knows a bit about cookies and gourmet food brand building having just sold the Opera Foods group in Australia, has achieved three of a rare few Great Taste Award gold medals held by Australian food businesses.

Acquisition of the Opera Foods Group

Opera Foods Pty Ltd has been acquired (effective June 2015) by Shane and Aniko Silk who formerly owned the Epicurean Kitchen business of Marrickville NSW.

Epicurean Kitchen is a gourmet food manufacturing business in Sydney, built up by the Silks from a small corner bakery from 1994 to a large food factory and into Australia's top manufacturer of gourmet cakes.

Epicurean Kitchen remains in the family and is now operated by their daughter & son-in-law having since also grown into a major manufacturer of portion control products for the Australian foodservice industry.

Opera Foods is known for its gourmet food brands particularly Plum Foods (packaged supermarket breakfast cereals) and Mulberry Tree (bulk foodservice breakfast cereals) which together produce gourmet granola, natural muesli, Bircher muesli and gluten free breakfast cereals for the foodservice industry.

Opera Food’s other brands include, Bush Cookies a manufacturer of packaged biscuits for supermarkets and The Lolly Shop brand which is focused on bulk confectionary products for foodservice retailers