Adventure food brand is starting to make strides

Initially working in Tralee, she moved to Waterford, before settling in Cork, where she took part in the Exxcel programme for female entrepreneurs at the Rubicon Centre.

Currently, a one-person enterprise, Ms Hurley works from her home-based office or at Bank of Ireland’s co-working space in Cork city centre.

Making up the T4 Adventure meals on the go is easy: Simply add hot water directly to the bag, stir and close the bag and wait 10 minutes. Describing it as a “better pot noodle” because of its convenience, Ms Hurley says the difference is the superior nutritional value and taste.

Created specifically for outdoor adventure enthusiasts, the idea for T4 Adventure arose from her own need for the product.

When planning hikes, she struggled to find food that tasted good, was convenient and lightweight, and so recognised a gap for a product that would fit those requirements.

For those who are into extreme sports, nutritionally-dense food is essential as pursuits such as mountaineering or yacht racing can burn up to 5,000 calories a day, she says.

While there are many competitors in the area, T4 Adventure differentiates itself by the taste and quality of the ingredients and packaging — the pouch is compostable and biodegradable.

She says that those who are into outdoor lifestyles are usually environmentally-conscious.

The recipes are simple, with an emphasis on natural ingredients and flavour.

Ms Hurley says that she’s not aiming for a minimum number of ingredients, her priority is on taste and nutritional content.

A qualified chef, Ms Hurley worked in the food service industry in the US before moving to Ireland three years ago.

T4 Adventure is set to launch in January with three meals: Chicken Tagine, Buffalo and Stout Stew, Vegan Smoky Beans Stew, plus a side of mashed potato. They cost around €8 and €9.

The meals are freeze-dried, a process that retains as much as possible of the meal’s nutritional quality and taste.

The New Yorker has Irish citizenship and decided it was the right time to take her passport and go for an adventure.

I had kind of had the idea on the back burner. I didn’t go with the intention of starting a business, but it worked out that way.

She received early support from her local enterprise office via a trading and micro-exporting grant.

Prize money from awards, including €3,000 from a pitching competition at the Fuelling Ambition Roadshow in April last year, helped her to develop the business at the very start.

A graduate of University College Cork’s Ignite programme in March, her company won an award.

The recipient of an Innovation Voucher from Enterprise Ireland which gives access to research facilities around the country, she travels to Teagasc’s food production facility in Ashtown, Dublin 15, where she creates and develop her recipes.

T4 Adventure’s products have a shelf-life of about two years which makes it ideal for buying in bulk and planning adventures.

Through her research, Ms Hurley found that her target customers do most of their trip planning online, with serious hikers and adventurists putting together detailed spreadsheets to figure out how much each item weighs.

Those insights have led to her decision to focus one-commerce and outdoor speciality shops rather than food outlets and supermarkets.

Having conducted small scale testing with adventure sports enthusiasts in Ireland and the UK, her participation in Bord Bia’s Food Works programme has enabled her to begin further research with focus groups next month.

She is preparing for an online launch in January, and to roll out her product range in outdoor shops beginning in March.