‘Clean sweep’ For Clandeboye Yoghurt As It Supplies Co-op Food
The multi-award winning Clandeboye Estate Yoghurts, the only yoghurt produced in Northern Ireland, has won new business with the Co-op during the coronavirus lockdown.
Signing a significant deal to supply two varieties of luxury yoghurt to Co-op Food here means that the estate’s delicious yoghurt is now readily available in every major supermarket across the province. Hundreds of smaller grocers and delis across Northern Ireland also include the hand crafted yoghurt .
Bryan Boggs, Clandeboye Estate’s general manager, commenting of the artisan company’s latest deal, says: “It’s real boost and very pleasing to know that our yoghurt is now available in every major retail outlet across Northern Ireland. The Co-op Food business means we have achieved total penetration of our home market. Not bad for a smaller food business based on the historic Clandeboye Estate,” he says.
He continues: “We are delighted to be supplying yoghurt to such an influential and progressive retailer as the Co-op. We’ve seen very encouraging growth in our business over the past few months especially from the trend towards home cooking and baking. Our natural yoghurt is proving extremely popular with home bakers in particular,” Bryan says.
The company, he adds, has also seen its range of yoghurts included in food hampers by many delis and sold in ‘pop up’ shops opened by restaurants during the lockdown.
In addition to its outstanding success in Northern Ireland, the company, based on the lush and spectacular 2000-acre Clandeboye Estate, near Bangor, of agri-food innovator Lady Dufferin, has developed a very strong presence in the Republic of Ireland due to its longstanding business relationship with Aldi Ireland, now Clandeboye’s biggest single retail customer.
Clandeboye created special flavours for the market leader in the Republic and supplies all 142 of its stores across the country.
As a result of this outstanding growth, Clandeboye Estate Yoghurt now has a presence in every part of Northern Ireland and the Republic and is probably the only artisan business from here to have such an impressive market penetration.
As well as the yoghurt business, the parkland estate features a successful farming business with an award-winning herd of pedigree Jersey and Holstein dairy cows.
Lady Dufferin pioneered the yoghurt business in 2007 as part of an imaginative diversification strategy for the farm.
Clandeboye’s luxury yoghurt uses milk from the herd and is processed using traditional handmade techniques that include straining it through cheesecloth with absolutely no thickening additives and therefore no added fats. The milk, sourced fresh every morning, is prepared and cultured very gently over a 24-hour period in small batches which ensure the outstanding quality and distinctive rich flavours of the extensive range of products which have total traceability.
