Shared kitchen model will help start-ups with the high costs of setting up a food business.
A new €2.1m shared kitchen initiative has been revealed for Irish food start-ups.
Located at the SPADE Enterprise Centre in North King Street in Dublin, the shared kitchen will provide increased capacity for what is a growing demand from food start-ups.
“The shared kitchen will provide that much needed practical support and surety that are vital to all start-ups and will build on an already innovative and thriving food scene”
It will provide food start-ups with affordable and flexible kitchen space and it will operate 15 hours per day for 365 days of the year.
Hot in the kitchen
The shared kitchen model will help start-ups with the high costs of setting up a new food business and thereby prevent early exits from the business.
The kitchen will accommodate multiple food producers simultaneously with state-of-the-art kitchen facilities, along with best practice culinary and nutritional education, sectoral events and food cluster initiatives.
“For more than 35 years SPADE have nurtured and encouraged a spirit of entrepreneurship here in the city and provided flexible work spaces which can grow with businesses as they scale up,” said Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail Damien English, TD, who performed the sod turning ceremony for the new shared kitchens.
“The shared kitchen will provide that much needed practical support and surety that are vital to all start-ups and will build on an already innovative and thriving food scene.”
SPADE (St Paul’s Area Development Enterprise CLG) is a not for profit community enterprise based centre comprising kitchen and office units supporting start ups and young companies to incubate in Dublin’s North Inner City.
It has operated successfully since 1990 providing kitchen and office space in its units in North King St and Oxmanstown Lane.
SPADE was approved funding from Enterprise Ireland under Regional Enterprise Development Funds towards the development of this new Shared Kitchen incubator.
Over the past number of years, SPADE has provided space for over 80 businesses contributing to over 250 jobs. They currently provide their main building in North King St and allied premises to more than 30 businesses employing 155 staff including social enterprises, innovative food companies, tech start ups and professional services.
“Enterprise Ireland is delighted to support this project through the Regional Enterprise Development Fund,” said Carol Gibbons, divisional manager, Regions and Local Enterprise with Enterprise Ireland.
“This new Shared Kitchen reflects the spirit of sustainable Regional Development promoting resource sharing to facilitate job creation, new product development and innovation. We congratulate Spade on their achievements to date in supporting new and growing food enterprises in Dublin.”
