Kevin and Davina Walsh’s business ethos is built around strong relationships with both staff and suppliers, and giving back to society.

Their sustainable picnic baskets fit into that ethos also. As well as that, 100% of the profits from the month of May have been donated to Breast Cancer Ireland (BCI).

Giving back

Kevin and Davina Walsh launched their company Lily & Wild, during lockdown in 2020 with the profits from their launch also going to BCI.

“Cancer touches every family, and breast cancer unfortunately touches many families,” Kevin says. “Davina’s aunt was diagnosed and finished her treatment a few weeks ago, so this cause was quite close to home.”

The couple were proud to raise over €3,000 for BCI from the charity launch, which they emphasise was helped by the support of the local community.

“It’s something that could be eaten anywhere, whether the weather is good or bad,” laughs Davina as she recalls how many people bought picnics and ate them on the floor of their sitting room just to support the charity.

Vintage truck

Kevin and Davina then set up their business at Naas Racecourse. As indoor dining is not yet allowed, they took the next logical step and decided to set up a vintage Citroën truck from which to sell food. The truck offers picnic baskets and lunches to go at Naas racecourse, caters for private events (such as weddings) and will be at the Naas Wild Food festival in September.

Joking about their funky Citroën truck, Davina outlines how it’s not all sunshine and roses.

“Now, it is a vintage truck – so it acts vintage,” she laughs. “It only drives 70km/h. It’s left-hand drive because it’s French, and there’s no power steering, so it’s a bit like a tractor.”

The pair got the truck refurbished by a local company, and Davina’s dad also helped redecorate it. “It’s just beautiful,” she says. “I would love to have it in my garden.”

A history of horses

Kevin and Davina have over 25 years’ experience in the catering industry. This experience is interlinked with the Irish equine industry. In fact, they first met on the Curragh Racecourse. Kevin has been catering for the horse racing industry for many years with his catering company Eventwaiter (they recently took on a catering contract with Goffs racing).

Davina has a family history in the racing industry, with several of her relatives working as professional jockeys – such as the flat jockey Shane Foley, who she joked “was lucky enough to marry into our family”.

Supporting local

The couple have made a big effort to source and support local; being sustainable from the outset.

“Setting up a new company, we wanted to make sure we were doing everything correctly from the beginning,” Davina says. The couple use O’Mahony meats, wine from the Nude Wine Company, and coffee from Bad Habits coffee.

“People are mad about the coffee – I’m not even a coffee person and I like it,” Davina laughs.

They also use 90% sustainable packaging in their picnic baskets, sourced from Irish-based company Down2Earth Materials.

Kevin outlines that, for them, building relationships and providing quality service are more important than price.

When we buy from smaller businesses, the reliability is there

“We try our best,” he says. “We’re learning as we go along. It doesn’t have to be the cheapest thing. For us, it’s about quality and reliability.

“When we buy from smaller businesses, the reliability is there,” he adds. “With the big companies, everything is online. It’s so impersonal, you can’t explain different elements to a computer.”

The business is very family orientated, with chef Alan using his mother’s treacle bread recipe, and Davina’s mother even coming in to bake.

“Mammy has a few specialities,” she says. “It’s nice to have the family involved; they’re so supportive and generous with their time and advice”.

Building strong staff relationships

“People are willing to work with you if you work with them,” says Kevin. “Everyone who started with us – they’re still with us. Honesty and integrity is important to us.”

We haven’t experienced difficulty with getting staff to return to work, we brought back our full-time staff and they’re all happy to return

Davina agrees, outlining the value of building relationship with employees.

“We haven’t experienced difficulty with getting staff to return to work, we brought back our full-time staff and they’re all happy to return, and again that’s from building proper relationships with staff. The relationships we have with our team is unmatched, and you can’t buy that.”

Kevin’s history has encouraged the pair to be socially conscious when hiring.

With Lily & Wild, we’re going to try to take on younger people who need a chance

“I come from a disadvantaged background,” he explains. “I was given an opportunity by someone to work in catering. As someone from inner city Dublin, I was able to go into Dublin Castle, City Hall and Government buildings to work. There was no way I could have gotten in there without that job.”

Kevin and Davina are currently looking at hiring through youth outreach programmes. “With Lily & Wild, we’re going to try to take on younger people who need a chance – we’re keen to explore that.”

Simple food made well

Despite working in high-end restaurants over the decades, Kevin says, for him, simple food is the best.

“I just love going back to basics,” he says. “Every restaurant I go to, I get a shepherd’s pie. I love fresh Irish produce – no one does vegetables like Ireland. I’d eat a plate of carrots, misshapen and all.”

We grew up with new potatoes, misshapen carrots and rhubarb

Davina shares this passion for Irish produce, which came from her parents. “My dad’s crazy about his garden – better than the golf course,” she jokes. “He comes home from holidays to cut the grass.”

“We grew up with new potatoes, misshapen carrots and rhubarb.” Davina warmly remembers the memories of her mother and grandmother baking, and her aunt making jams.

“Our food is basics done really well,” Kevin says. “We have a great combination, Alan is the chef from Naas, but he worked in Sydney and New Zealand, so he brings a bit of a flare. It’s Irish food, but just with a bit of a twist on it.”