Ray Coyle obituary: The king of Irish crisps who realised his theme park dream against the odds

Born August 28th, 1951

Died: June 8th, 2022

The potato farmer turned snack food manufacturer who founded Tayto Park, Ray Coyle has died aged 70. The Meath entrepreneur was best known for building up Largo Foods into a leading international snack-food business making top-selling brands including Tayto, Hunky Dorys and King crisps.

In 2010, Coyle turned 22 hectares of farmland near Ashbourne into an American-style theme park with rides, a zoo, adventure playgrounds, shops and restaurants. Tayto Park soon became one of Ireland’s top visitor attractions. In 2011 he won the industry category at the EY Enterpreneur of the Year awards.

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Renowned for his self-belief and persistence in pursuing projects to the end, Coyle also had a keen eye for marketing. He was behind some of Ireland’s most innovative promotions such as running Mr Tayto as a spoof candidate in the 2007 general election and publishing a best-selling biography of the crisp mascot. The use of women in suggestive poses to promote his Hunky Dory crisps fell foul of advertising standards, however, as did a claim to be the main sponsor of Irish rugby when the brand was a sponsor of Navan RFC at the time. After that, Coyle used the crisp brand to promote four Irish sportswomen — boxer Katie Taylor, athlete Derval O’Rourke, sailor Annalise Murphy and his daughter, Natalya Coyle, a pentathlete — in the London Olympics in 2012.

Coyle, one of four children, grew up on a tillage and cattle farm in Curragha, Co Meath. The family also ran the local pub. As a young man he began growing and selling his own potatoes and vegetables on six hectares of land his father gave him. When still in his mid-twenties, he had a turnover of £1 million a year. As his profits grew, he expanded his farm to more than 300 hectares.

However, in the early 1980s, when he lost his contract to supply potatoes to Tayto, he got into huge debt, owing the bank £1.2 million. Unable to pay off the loans — even by selling his entire farm — he decided to raffle off more than 100 hectares and, by selling 4,000 tickets at £300 a ticket, he raised enough money to clear his debts.

Largo Foods

Aware that Tayto had about 90 per cent of the Irish crisp market at the time, Coyle saw an opportunity to start a snack-food manufacturing business. So, in 1982, he set up Largo Foods, and purchased the Perri crisp brand a year later. In 1996 he bought the Sam Spudz brand and in a move to enter the UK market, he launched the now famous Hunky Dorys brand. He won Irish marketeer of the year that same year.

In 2005 Cantrell & Cochrane shut down its Tayto factory in Coolock, Dublin, and outsourced production to Largo Foods. The following year, when C&C put Tayto up for sale, a bidding war ensued between Michael Carey of East Coast Bakehouse and Coyle. Coyle won, paying €62 million for both Tayto and King crisp brands.

Carey, a former chairman of An Bord Bia — the Irish Food Board — and a long-standing friend of Ray Coyle, remembers the time well. “He phoned me two weeks later and said ‘you cost me €5 million’. I apologised and he invited myself and my wife, Alison Cowzer, to dinner in his home,” says Carey who describes Coyle as “a legend in the food industry, an inspirational entrepreneur and a most entertaining person to spend time with”.

In the late 2000s, Coyle — who had factories in the Czech Republic, Moldova and Libya at different times — began a financial partnership with German snack-food company Intersnack that would allow the company to invest in automation to enhance efficiencies and maintain competitiveness. In 2015 he sold his remaining stakes in Largo Foods to Intersnack and stepped down as chairman of Largo in 2016. In 2019 he became a financial partner in the well-known Irish brand Green Isle.

Coyle was a regular attendee at international trade fairs and an enthusiastic supporter of start-ups, offering advice and investment to new food businesses. Not all of his ventures proved successful, but each time he carried the experience of his failures into his next project.

Cowzer, co-founder with Carey of East Coast Bakehouse, a Drogheda-based biscuit maker, says Coyle had “an unshakeable belief in an idea and the extraordinary drive to see it though ... He also had a willingness to back and invest in small businesses and a strong belief that business should be exciting. He brought stardust, craic and a sense of fun to every endeavour he was involved in.”

Brian Lee, founder and owner of healthy food chain Chopped, described Coyle as a close entrepreneurial friend. “He was a legend in his own right and a pioneer of putting multiple food brands together. He was warm and generous and always had time for people,” said Lee.

Coyle’s plans to build a theme park in a field in Co Meath with the best roller coaster in Europe were initially met with scepticism from business colleagues and friends. But he was inspired by how Milton Hershey, owner of the world’s first chocolate factory, had built Hershey Park in Pennsylvania, initially as a place for his employees and their families to relax and later a big tourist attraction. Coyle pursued his dream and, even when the bank withdrew its support more than halfway through the project, Coyle stuck with it and Tayto Park went on to make a profit in its first year.

In 2015 the Cu Chulainn roller coaster — Europe’s largest wooden roller coaster — was added at a cost of €12 million after being given the go-ahead by An Bord Pleanála following a two-year long planning battle. In 2017, Ireland’s largest flume ride, the Viking Voyage, became another addition to the park, whose sponsorship deal with the Tayto brand concludes at the end of the year.

The Coyle family continues to run Tayto Park as a family business, with Ray and wife Rosamund’s son Charles working as the general manager. Their daughter Natalya is a professional athlete who represented Ireland in the modern pentathlon at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Entrepreneur Seán Gallagher, who featured Coyle in his book Secrets to Success: Inspiring Stories from Leading Entrepreneurs (Mercier Press, 2018), says resilience and curiosity were his strongest characteristics. “He was not deterred by challenges and had a natural innate talent around food and branding. He was also a great role model and sounding board for people starting food businesses,” said Gallagher.

Raymond (Ray) Coyle is survived by his wife, Rosamund; his son, Charles; and his daughter, Natalya; son-in-law Arthur; brother John; sisters Jennifer and Charlotte; and nieces and nephews.