Young Cork Entrepreneur Goes From Making Energy Balls for His College Mates To A Million Euro Contract With Aldi

A young Cork entrepreneur who first started with bringing his homemade energy balls to college lectures has signed a contract worth €1 million with supermarket chain ALDI.Matthew Collins is from Ballydesmond in Cork and he founded The Sibly Food Co. in 2018.After years of making product for friends, then selling at markets he recently has signed a 12 month contract to supply ALDI’s 161 Irish stores with its popular Energy Balls product.He started making his own homemade energy balls and bringing them to college lectures at the age of 21.After classmates encouraged him to sell his produce, Matthew set up a stall at a Christmas Market in Kanturk where his energy balls proved a big hit with customers and his business has grown hugely since then.He applied for the ‘Grow with ALDI’ programme in 2022 and was selected as one of five winners of the supplier development programme.He told Alison his story.