Our People

Denis founded Finnebrogue Artisan in 1985 – and remains our inspiration.

Denis spent more than thirty years leading Finnebrogue’s extraordinary growth and was the driving force behind several ground-breaking innovations.

Starting his career by selling pizzas and pies out of a little white van, he soon discovered a new French fry and became the largest customer of Lord Chips in Europe, using the money raised to buy the beautiful Finnebrogue estate in 1991.

During the 1990s he was a beef farmer and then a deer farmer. Denis established Finnebrogue as the leading farmer and processor of deer in the UK, supplying Michelin star restaurants, top supermarkets and celebrity chefs.

Since then, he was at the heart of many food revolutions, from the posh dog to nitrite-free bacon. In five years from 2015 he opened four state-of-the-art factories, grew the business’s turnover to nearly £150m and built one of the best teams in the food industry, which is now pressing ahead with realising Denis’s vision.

Through his charity work, Denis helped to eradicate childhood malaria deaths in an entire district of southern Malawi, supported Cancer Fund for Children and helped to tackle holiday hunger long before it was fashionable.

In 2018, the Institute of Directors named Denis the UK’s most innovative business leader of the year.