Sweet taste of success for Draperstown firm

Established in August 2013, Draperstown-based ‘So Popcorn’ started producing its own range of gourmet popcorn products using 16 domestic electrical appliances. In less than a year, the organisation has seen the popularity of its products rocket and has gone from producing 800 bags of popcorn a month to over 2,000 bags every week.

With flavours that include Irish cream, salty caramel, chewy marshmallow and vanilla chocolate, So Popcorn is stocked in numerous outlets around Northern Ireland including: Spar, Nisa and Super Valu and, more recently, the Odyssey Arena Cinema.

So Popcorn owner, Declan McBride said: “As an ambitious new start-up we were keen to get our brand out there but to do so we needed a way to fund our working capital requirements and marketing costs. We approached the NI Small Business Loan Fund for a loan to help us expand and keep up with the demand for business and they were more than happy to support our ambitions for growth.”

The investment will allow So Popcorn to invest in a new R&D programme to expand its product range in response to rapidly increasing customer demand, as well as exploring export opportunities throughout the UK.