Irwin’s Bakery, Northern Ireland’s leading independent bakery, has secured a deal worth £3.5 million annually to supply Waitrose and Morrisons stores in Great Britain with its new Irwin’s Together range of speciality breads.

The family-owned bakery, which is based at Craigavon, county Armagh, has rolled out the eight-strong range of products in 600 stores. The full NPD line-up comprises:• Stoneground Wheaten Bread, rsp £1.25• Brown Soda Bread, rsp £1.35• 4 Mini Soda Breads, rsp £1.10• 4 Buttermilk Muffins, rsp £1• 4 Ancient Grain Muffins, rsp £1• Fruit Loaf, rsp £1.55• Cinnamon & Raisin Toasty Loaf, rsp £1.25• 4 Potato Breads, rsp £1.40

The latest deal in Britain, according to Irwin’s, demonstratesits continued success in creating demand for speciality breads amongst consumers in Great Britain. Earlier this year the bakery also secured a £2.7 million annual contract with Lidl Northern Ireland which it has been working with for 20 years – to supply a range of bread, rolls and sweet treats to all of the retailer’s stores in Ireland.

“Winning new business contracts of this scale are a clear sign we are continuing to grow our share of the speciality breads market in GB,” said Irwin’s Bakery chief executive Michael Murphy. “Currently just under 50 percent of our business is outside Northern Ireland, with the bulk of that going fresh, daily, to GB, and we expect this to grow with the introduction of the Irwin’s Together range.”

Murphy added that the business has invested over £500,000 in both consumer research and brand development to ensure Irwin’s “understands consumers’ needs and usage occasions, alongside a brand identity that reflects our values, skill, and heritage as craft bakers”.

The business has also invested in additional capability at its Portadown bakery to help produce NPD, he said.

“Cultures are changing constantly, and Irwin’s prides itself on keeping up with these changes,” Murphy added. “Consumers have enjoyed and experimented with food throughout lockdown and continue to look for ways to create great meals with everyday staples such as bread as the main ingredient for the whole family. We believe our breads lay the foundations for a great meal.”

Clandeboye Estate, Northern Ireland’s only producer of yoghurt from its own dairy herd, has launched a deliciously innovative product for Tesco stores here.

The original product from the multi-award winning producer, based on the estate’s acclaimed dairy farm, is a crunchy and nut-free granola topped Greek style yoghurt available in two outstandingly tasty flavours – Senga Strawberry and Mango. The new Greek style yoghurts with granola are available in convenient 150g pots RRP £1.29.

The new product range is launched as the successful food business, which has won a host of UK Great Taste and other prestigious awards, is completing a state-of-the-art processing operation also on the estate.

The new £2 million factory will enable the ambitious company to quadruple production and create 13 new jobs, 

The investment is being undertaken to enable the business to meet increasing demand for its products in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic and also to develop exciting opportunities from approaches from retailers in Britain.

Explaining the development of the new luxury granola yoghurts, Bryan Boggs, Clandeboye Estate Yoghurts general manager, says: “The new product has been developed to meet a business opportunity for a premium yoghurt topper we’ve identified in our on-going market research and regular discussions with Tesco and other supermarkets which we supply in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

“We currently supply our range of yoghurts to every supermarket and the leading symbol groups in Northern Ireland, as well as hundreds of delis and smaller specialist stores.

“Tesco was keen on the new product and keen to be the launch customer…and we’re delighted that the new product will be on sale in many of its stores across Northern Ireland this month (July),” he adds.

The new retail product is also influenced by Clandeboye’s longstanding and successful experience in producing luxury granola topped yoghurt snack pots for the hospitality sector especially leading café chains in Northern Ireland.

The yoghurt is produced from fresh milk sourced daily Clandeboye’s award-winning Holstein herd free to graze the rich pastures of the 2,000-acre estate outside Bangor, Co Down.

The new retail yoghurts are a further example of the product innovation which is at the heart of the business founded by the late Lady Dufferin as a farm diversification project in 2007, now among the most successful of its type in the UK

Successful craft brewery McCrackens Real Ale in Portadown, county Armagh has invested in a new brewery and canning line to quadruple production to meet demand in Northern Ireland and to develop opportunities identified in export markets. The brewery is a Food NI member company.

Owner Ryan McCracken developed the new brewery with a manufacturer in China to position the small business for faster growth beyond the current pandemic.

With 80 percent of the island’s craft beer and cider revenue streams shut off virtually overnight, Ryan and the entire industry were forced to switch from on-trade sales to targeting online sales and off-trade outlets. 

“I had started reviewing my options for upgrading our brewery in response to a growing demand for our beers in December 2019 but decided to put everything on hold due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic,” he explains. “I decided instead to pivot our strategy to sustain the business by building up our online presence,” he adds. 

“This was the best way to keep some cash flowing while bars, restaurants and hotels, our biggest market sector, were shuttered. There was scope too to develop more contacts in retailing here and further afield especially in Great Britain. Sales are now growing again from the lifting of restrictions in hospitality,” he continues.

Ryan subsequently decided that planning for the future of the business would also require significant investment.

“We picked things back up again in the summer of 2020 and decided to review the operations and experiences of brewhouses all over the world to enable us to weigh up our options for the future. I saw an opportunity, for example, to expand our retail sales and was encouraged to gain a listing last year on Ocado, the biggest online store in Britain.”

Ryan quickly recognised that the business would require a complete revamp, a new brewery with bigger tanks and associated systems. The review pinpointed a manufacturer of brewing kit in China’s Shandong province as the clear leader in terms of requirements set by Ryan. “But purchasing a brewery from afar was always going to be challenging,” he explains. 

“With the world in various stages of lockdown we were, of course, unable to visit any of the factories and to see the equipment they were producing.  Our concerns, however, were alleviated once we spoke with some breweries around the UK, including one in Northern Ireland, which already used brewing equipment from the same manufacturer,” he adds.

Several months were spent working with the manufacturer’steam of designers by phone, email and other digital communications to build the sophisticated brewing systemsfrom the ground up. “Shaping a brewing system remotely was really quite a challenge. It’s certainly not an easy way to shape a brewery,” he says. “Our objective was to create a fully bespoke system that was a perfect fit for our aim of quadrupling capacity, increasing efficiencies whilst reducing comparable power and water consumption,” he adds. 

A key element of the new brewery complex is the introduction of a canning line in response to pre-pandemic market research which showed that more people than ever were keen to taste craft beers in cans. This was reinforced by information that the trend had strengthened during the lockdowns.

 “There are many advantages of craft beer in cans,” he continues. “They are lighter, better for the environment, easier to store, and ideal for exports. The increased label area has given us the opportunity to update our brand and base it on something that is intertwined with our rich heritage,” he adds.

 The brewery is continuing to supply its range of beers in bottles and kegs as well as cans, giving customers a far greater choice. The increased capacity and versatility from the new brewery is also enabling the introduction of new beers and enhancing its overall focus on innovation in the months ahead.

McCracken’s Real Ale, launched by Ryan, an IT manager on the back of a home brewing hobby in 2014, is already benefiting from the investment in the new brewery. It now offers a very broad range of pale ales, Irish pale ale and chocolate and vanilla Irish stout are all hand crafted in various formats in the brewery.

Ryan’s bold investment has positioned the brewery to seize opportunities predicted by marketing experts suggesting that the craft beer category is in line for large scale growth in the global marketplace. There’s now a growing recognition of the entrepreneurship of the brewers like Ryan McCracken and their success in brewing Irish beers that are unique, richly flavoured, local and creative.

Echlinville Distillery is adding the historic Matt D’Arcy Irish Whiskey brand to its portfolio of award winning whiskeys.
 
Based in Kircubbin, Echlinville and Newry’s Matt D’Arcy have forged an alliance that will see Echlinville mature, bottle and market Matt. D’Arcy’s Old Irish Whiskey and grow the brand in the global Irish whiskey market.
 
Founded in Newry, Co. Down in 1817, Matt. D’Arcy Whiskey was revived by Newry businessman Michael McKeown in 2020. It is the latest heritage whiskey brand to join the Echlinville line up.
 
Matt D’Arcy’s will sit alongside Echlinville’s award-winning Dunville’s Irish Whiskey range and the recently restored Old Comber Pot Still Irish Whiskey. The move sees three of Ireland’s most historic ‘lost’ whiskey brands brought together at the Co Down distillery that has established itself at the forefront of Ireland’s whiskey revival.

Shane Braniff, owner of The Echlinville Distillery, said: “We are delighted to welcome Matt D’Arcy into the Echlinville family and we look forward to sharing the story and celebrating the legacy of this proud Co. Down whiskey with our customers around the world.
 
“I have long had a passion for old Irish whiskey brands, particularly those from Co. Down, so I have followed with interest the revival of Matt D’Arcy Irish Whiskey over the past few years.
 
“At Echlinville, we know from first-hand experience the hard work, passion and dedication that goes in to restoring a historic name like Matt D’Arcy’s, and in doing so in a way that respects and celebrates the brand’s proud heritage. I congratulate Michael McKeown and his team at Matt D’Arcy & Co. Ltd in Newry for everything they have done to bring back this historic whiskey and we welcome Michael’s continued input into the future of the brand about which he is hugely passionate. We have also offered Michael our technical support as he pursues the redevelopment of the Old Distillery site in Newry in line with his vision to restore distilling to the city where Matt D’Arcy Whiskey was born.”
 

Echlinville is proud custodians of the iconic Dunville’s Irish Whiskey brand and recently revived the famous Old Comber Pot Still Irish Whiskey. Speaking about therole of heritage brands in Irish whiskey, Shane continued: “These old Irish whiskey brands are hugely important. Throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries they built an industry that was the envy of the world, and now their revival is playing an important role in the resurgence of that industry. In our view, names like Matt D’Arcy, Dunville’s and Old Comber deserve to be part of the Irish whiskey renaissance.”
 
Michael McKeown owner of Matt D’Arcy. said: “Having grown up in the production and selling of alcoholic drinks, I have the greatest respect for Shane Braniff at Echlinville, whose passion and enthusiasm for Irish whiskey heritage matches my own.
 
“Echlinville’s brands are now widely sold across Ireland, Europe and the rest of the world. When Shane offered to bring Matt D’Arcy along the path to international recognition, I was only too happy to entrust the brand into his care and I look forward to seeing it grow on the worldwide whiskey stage.
 
“The high cost of breaking into foreign markets is the biggest barrier to a small producer like Matt D’Arcy. Collaborating with an established player such as Echlinville will propel the brand towards future growth.”
 

Dale Farm, Northern Ireland’s biggest dairy co-op, has reported what it describes as a ‘resilient’ performance in a challenging environment for the financial year ending March 2021.

The co-operative, has reported growth for 2020/21, with turnover up £19 million to £524 million.

Group operating profit was reported at £14 million, with the previous year being £12.2 million.

Dale Farm Group chief executive Nick Whelan said the breadth of sales channels allowed the co-op to benefit from an uplift in retail sales volumes in 2020/21.

This came despite a decline in foodservice sales volumes due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Whelan added: “I am pleased to report another solid year of results for Dale Farm for 2020/21, achieved despite some challenges during the year, not least the pandemic.

“Additional operating costs were incurred during the year due to Covid-19, however despite these headwinds we achieved a solid set of financial results.

“It is also important to acknowledge the exceptional dedication of our people across the business who delivered a resilient performance.”

Mr Whelan said that despite challenges, Dale Farm continued to maximise the return on its farmers’ milk supply ‘through successful innovation, value added sales streams, proactive margin improvement and continuous cost control’.

“All of which will stand us in good stead and enable us to pay a market competitive milk price as we move forward,” he added. 

Looking ahead, he said the business improvements achieved during 2020/21 allowed them to ‘look with confidence into 2021/22 and beyond’. 

“As always, continuous investment in our plant and people, and maximising profitability whilst paying a market competitive milk price will be at the heart of our strategy,” Mr Whelan said.

Irwin’s Bakery has strengthened its business with Asda in a deal which will see two new lines stocked in all 16 of the retailer’s stores across Northern Ireland.

The Portadown-based baker will add two new four-pack roll products – brioche and sourdough – to Asda’s baked goods range.

Established in 1912, fourth-generation bakery Irwin’s employs more than 350 people.

“We’re really pleased to extend our business with Asda,” said John Hopkins, sales director at Irwin’s Bakery.

“As a business we take so much pride in our baking heritage and recipes, but we also recognise that consumers seek variety and new flavours from everyday products such as rolls.

“The popularity of brioche and sourdough have grown in recent years, and with our expertise we knew we could develop a quality product that customers will love – and gives a point of difference when it comes to buying products in the category.” 

Emma Swan, Asda’s buying manager for NI Local, added: “Our relationship with Irwin’s continues to grow, and it’s wonderful to see more of its products on our shelves.

“We’re proud to offer our shoppers high-quality locally-produced products, and these two additions are exactly that. We hope customers love these twists on classic rolls.”