MyMilkman’s Clive Ledwith enjoys his early morning doorstep chats with customers

The chatty father-of-two started out doing accounts for another milkman and helping load product into vans. When an opportunity came up to start his own milk round with the www.mymilkman.ie service, the Mullingar man jumped at the opportunity. That was 2008 and he’s grown his round in the Co Westmeath area ever since.

“A good few customers, particularly  younger families, are ordering and paying online. You drop the products to their door, you rarely see them. But there are others who love the chat, who love to see you coming to the doorstep and who are mad for conversation. It’s one of the best parts of the job, meeting the characters, having the craic.”

“A typical day starts at 5.30am when I leave the house. I arrive into the depot around 5.50am, load the van and start out on my round. Two of us deliver in Mullingar town. We deliver until about 11am all over town. Then I load up back in the depot for my rural run. I get back home around 3pm, just in time for my children’s homework. They’re 5 and 8 so it’s a busy time.  It’s great to be part of that and it gives my wife Pamela support with homework, gymnastics, basketball and all the other bits.”

New customers

Clive picked up as many as 100 new customers during the COVID pandemic and the majority of these stayed with the doorstep service and I’ve seen an increase in the orders.  “There is no typical order and because people can change their order so conveniently on the app, orders for each house change all the time. But we deliver everything. Avonmore milk, butter and soup, juice, eggs, bread, yoghurts, cream and cheese.

“At the start, many of the customers were older. But with the easy to use and convenient App, the age profile has lowered. People find it handy and they’re on their phones all of the time and find it so easy to place or change an order.

Trusted brand

“People see us driving around the estate in the branded van. They sign up and they keep signed up. People like the Avonmore brand – and they trust it.”

Because he’s out any about in the early hours, Clive says he’s often met late night revellers returning home, full of mischief and fun.

It is hard work but Clive enjoys it and it allows him time in the afternoon with his wife and two children. “The weather is probably one of the biggest challenges and maintaining vans. But I wouldn’t swap it for the world. There is a good lifestyle – it’s like running a pub. You get to chat to some of the customers, have the fun, hear about them, their lives and their day.”

When he’s not delivering milk or helping out at home or with sports, Clive is also promoting the Avonmore range. He has a sideline enterprise, the Milkman’s Mug. The popular coffee station can be seen at local matches or can be commissioned for weddings and corporate events.

Retiree, Joe Corrigan, has had milk and cream delivered to his home on the edge of Mullingar town for over a decade. His daughter set up the account  online about 12 years ago.  She graduated from college and left home but Joe still finds it convenient to keep up the doorstep delivery service, saying it means he doesn’t have to lug milk from the shop and never runs out.

“It’s convenient and it’s handy that my milkman, Clive, drops it off right at my door. Every now and again I spot Clive, pop out and have the chats with him and all the rest. I get cream the odd time but I mostly get milk. I get a delivery twice a week and over that time, I’d go through about 5 litres of milk in all.

Convenient

“I’ve built a little secret place out of the sun and away from the door that Clive leaves the milk. It means that it’s not in the direct sunlight during the summer and out of the rain for the rest of the year. I don’t do any other online shopping – I get this because it’s convenient, it’s handy and I like the chats with Clive,” Joe adds.

About MyMilkMan.ie

• The service is available nationally, with coverage across 25 counties.
• Over 200 milkmen/women operate nationally, and nearly 4 out of 5 milkmen are online using the mymilkman.ie
• The customer base grew during the Covid pandemic by about 10%, and the business has held on to 2/3 of these customer since then.
• A new consumer app was launched in 2021, and it has had nearly 30,000 downloads since.
• All consumers buy milk, and increasingly they are looking for other essential items, such as eggs, juice, plant-based beverages, and soup.
• 1 in every 2 new customers buys an item other than just milk.
• There was continued growth on the mymilkman platform during 2024, with a +3% growth rate in the number of Mymilkman accounts by the year end.
• A new Mymilkman digital brand campaign – which focused on the pain points (“ugh moments”) of running out of milk, along with a targeted influencer campaign – has resulted in a 22% increase in new customers. Sign-ups to the website and app alone increased by 33%.   
• By broadening the range of products available to include plant-based products such as Avonmore Oat Milk, as well as exclusive ‘doorstep -only’ Avonmore milk products,  the size of the average consumer purchase basket also increased.