About us

Costello & McDermott was founded in 1965 by Peter Costello and Eamon McDermott. Their grandfathers were brothers who both worked in the stonecutting business. The two cousins took a different course and started out their working lives in the BBC (Ballinrobe Bread Company, lest there be any confusion!). While delivering bread and chatting to customers throughout the west of Ireland, the two men spotted a gap in the market. They seized the opportunity and from the seed of an idea, Costello and McDermott was born. Armed only with that idea, a hunger for work and a desire to always look after their customer, the two bread delivery men struck out on their own and set about making a go of it in the frozen food business.

From those modest beginnings, the company has now clocked up over 50 years in the food distribution business and now has over 60 staff and a fleet of 25 vans and trucks. The product range too has seen vast diversification and now includes not only frozen retail products but a complete range of catering products, frozen, chilled, dry goods, baking supplies, packaging and janitorial supplies. Our services have also expanded to include distribution, storage and logistics offerings.

In addition to all of this, the most important element of our business, our customer base, has grown and diversified with us. Our customers now include shops, restaurants, hotels, cafes, delis, fast food outlets, hospitals, nursing homes, schools, contract caterers, child care centres and many others. We naturally still retain our ethos of putting the customer first and always doing our utmost to ensure that the customer is looked after. It is on this ethos that our success is built and it is because of this that we have gained the trust of so many loyal customers.

While Peter and Eamon remain very hands on in the business and continue to offer mentorship and advice, the reins have been handed on to the next generation and the company is now under the dynamic stewardship of Gwen Costello, David MacDermott and Martin Joyce.

Two Ballinrobe Dreamers and Believers

Willie McHugh interviews Peter and Eamon as we celebrated 50 years in business together

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