In this episode of the Ballymaloe Festival of Food Podcast, we visit the Cully & Sully team at their offices in Ford’s old head office building in Cork.
Cullen “Cully” Allen and Colum “Sully” O’Sullivan started their business in the early 2000s with little more than a good idea, a €100,000 loan, and a belief that honest food could find its place on supermarket shelves. What began with handmade pies soon grew into one of Ireland’s most recognisable soup brands, now selling a soup every 1.4 seconds across Ireland and the UK.
In a warm and candid conversation with our hosts Bree Allen, organiser of the Ballymaloe Festival of Food (and Cully’s wife), alongside Joleen Cronin, photographer and long-time collaborator with Cully & Sully and the Ballymaloe food community, the pair reflect on friendship, naivety in business, learning finance and branding from scratch, the decision to sell the company in 2012, and the journey that followed.
The episode also captures a moment of transition as Cully steps away from the company after more than two decades.
Along the way they share insights for new food producers, thoughts on the future of Irish food, and the long-standing connection between their story and the Ballymaloe Festival of Food.
It’s a conversation about creativity, resilience, and why sometimes the best way to start a business is simply to begin.
00:00 — Welcome to Ford’s old head office in Cork
02:00 — The early days: starting a business at 27
04:30 — Pies, soup and the first €100,000 loan
07:00 — Building the Cully & Sully brand
10:00 — Creativity meets business: how the partnership worked
14:00 — Asking for advice and learning from mentors
18:00 — Building a team and company culture
22:00 — Scaling the business and outsourcing production
25:00 — Why they sold the company in 2012
30:00 — Running the business after the sale
33:00 — Cully stepping away from the company
36:00 — Advice for new food producers
41:00 — What excites them about Irish food today
46:00 — The soup question: one soup for the rest of your life