OM DENNE EPISODE
In this episode of Interlinks, I speak with Mike Pettit, Director of 360 Bia Óg, the Dungarvan-based business delivering fresh, sustainable school lunches to primary schools across the south and southeast of Ireland.
At first glance, this is a conversation about school meals. But beneath that sits a much bigger business story: how a family-run food business identified a new opportunity emerging from public policy, moved quickly to seize it, and then built the operational capability required to deliver at scale.
Mike explains how 360 Bia Óg saw the opening created by Ireland’s expanding hot school meals scheme and responded with a model built on fresh daily production, tightly controlled delivery windows, reusable packaging, and a highly disciplined approach to consistency. We discuss the realities of running a time-sensitive food operation where success depends not just on quality and nutrition, but on logistics, staffing, contingency planning, supplier relationships, and process design.
From a macro-to-micro perspective, this episode is a strong example of how strategic opportunity is created at the macro level — through policy change, shifting social priorities, and demand for more sustainable food systems — and then captured at the micro level through operational excellence in production and delivery logistics.
Our conversation covers:
- how Mike’s background in hospitality shaped his approach to quality and consistency
- the opportunity created by the government-backed school meals programme
- what differentiates 360 Bia Óg in production, packaging, and delivery
- the role of sustainability in menu design, sourcing, and waste management
- how the business handles tight delivery windows and builds resilience into its operation
- what scaling this model nationally could look like over the next three to five years
This is a useful episode not only for those in foodservice, but for anyone interested in supply chain, operations, distribution, or the practical realities of turning strategy into execution.
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