Bailies Coffee Roasters in Belfast is aiming to accelerate the growth of existing business in Britain in particular.

The roaster hopes to drive growth in this important market through premium microlot coffees especially from Columbia. 

The company is targeting opportunities it has pinpointed in the dynamic ‘food on the move’ category, the company, which has been roasting premium coffee for over 20 years in Belfast, is also aiming to grow retail sales particularly in Great Britain.

Andrew Hollywood, head of marketing at Bailies Coffee Roasters, says: “We are always on the lookout for new and innovative ways in which to grow our retail business. Being design-led and thoughtful with our branding, along with having an extensive product-list to suit the needs of many from those who are just starting out on their coffee journey, to those who want to taste some of the best coffees around.”

The direct trade coffees were launched by the company’s experienced baristas at the Lunch! trade show in London

Explaining the decision to show the direct trade coffees at the Lunch! ‘food-on-the-move’ show, Mr Hollywood adds: “For us, Lunch! provides a unique opportunity to engage with customers in the food-to-go sector whilst also highlighting and further promoting our high-quality coffee and products to this sector and those within the specialty coffee scene. 

“A key strategy for us is to develop business with coffee shops and cafes in Britain, especially against the background of an EU Exit. We already have some fabulous customers in Britain, Europe and even the US, who all have a growing demand for; ethically sourced, great tasting coffee.  

“We’ll be serving some fantastic microlot coffees inspired by our recent sourcing trip to Colombia. Direct Trade with coffee farmers is of the utmost importance to us and we have very strong ethical principles during the purchasing process. Once purchased, the roastery creates phenomenal coffees with their dedication to the craft of roasting – creating distinct roast profiles that remain true to our framing partners wished and promote the finest aspects of the green bean – altogether enhancing the coffee experience,” he adds.

An example of this, at Lunch! festival, he explains, we will be serving a fresh crop, washed microlot coffee from our long-standing single origin partners Comepcafe co-op, in Colombia. 

“We’ve been working with Comepcafe for several years, helping the co-op to achieve their goal to produce some of the finest coffees in the world. And we are thrilled to be receiving not only single origin, but also now microlot coffees from them that are evidence of the quality of the farms that this Co-op it supports. 

“Our microlot coffee from the farm, Buena Vista, Comepcafe – has tasting notes of raspberry jam, red grape and vanilla.

“Alongside Buena Vista, we tasted four of our microlot coffees at Lunch! Including; Kenya Gakui AA, Costa Rica Cerro Dragon, and Guatemala El Limonar Cipreses. Our previous Guatemalan coffee was named after the farm itself: El Limonar was entered into the Guatemalan Cup of Excellence by the farmer Rogelio, who is also one of our Direct Trade farmers. 

“The coffee placed 17th overall with remarkable feedback and so we bought it through Cup of Excellence auction- as all coffees within the competition must be bought at auction price. Therefore, we paid even more for this coffee than our Direct Trade standard of 30 percent above Fairtrade price. But it paid off. The coffee was a hit, not only amongst everyone at Bailies, but the coffee sold fantastically well, across our customer base and on retail, and was proof for us that there is a demand for high quality exclusive lots.”

These microlots are unique to Bailies Coffee Roasters.” Microlots are a real growth area for our business, allowing us to command a premium and ultimately pay the farmer more money. We source our coffee directly and establish relationships with the farms. 

“Our Director of Green Bean Coffee would visit farms in some of the most remote places to help establish relationships and recommend changes to farming practices. Bailies Coffee Roasters also produce blended packs for sale and these coffees have also been rigorously cupped to ensure quality.”

 Bailies main business, he continues, is to supply the specialty coffee industry. “This remains our key focus, with our roastery also having capacity for more custom. On the equipment side, we currently supply several large-scale customers with brewing equipment. This can range from tea, coffee and hot chocolate machinery. Alongside this we run a successful ecommerce business supplying subscriptions and brewing equipment,” he adds.

The promotion of Bailies’ Direct Trade policies and involvement within the coffee  community, through events and competitions, he continues, “are some other  great ways we can spread the word about our brand and the retail choices we offer”.

Food NI member company Ewing’s, Northern Ireland’s leading and award winning fishmongers, has expanded its production capacity to meet soaring sales of smoked salmon. The company, based on the Shankill Road in Belfast, has created and kitted out a modern smoker in place of the kiln which has been used in curing and smoking salmon, cod and haddock for almost a century.

Ewing’s counts Sainsbury’s and many other high-end outlets among clients for smoked salmon and cod which have won major awards. It is also the prime supplier of organic salmon and other fresh seafood to more than 300 of Northern Ireland’s high-end restaurants. In addition, organic salmon smoked by Ewing’s has been used at high profile events in Britain and exported worldwide.

Director of the family-owned and managed business Crawford Ewing says the company has seen growing demand for its organic salmon in particular because of its outstanding flavour made the decision to invest in a new smoker a “no brainer”.

“While we were reluctant to move from our historic smoker which has been at the core of our business for almost century we needed a significant increase in capacity to maintain existing customers as well as many others seeking the salmon,” he says.

“Demolishing the old smoker was still a bit traumatic also emotional because of the many decades of smoke and, of course, history in its walls,” adds Mr Ewing.

While the old smoker has given way to a new development also on the company’s historic Belfast factory and shop, Ewing’s retains its longstanding and unique curing recipe and continues to smoke slowly over oak and beech wood chips. The slow curing and smoking process takes around a week.

The new smoker, designed to the highest hygiene standards but is still recreating the traditional methods also features a purpose-designed high care packing facility. The site of the old kiln is being developed into a vast freezer to support additional production in line with the growing demand for its products.

The company sources premium salmon from Northern Ireland and Scotland and has developed attractive smoked salmon packs for retail as well as supplying fresh, chilled and frozen seafood for foodservice.

Ewing’s has been sourcing, processing and supplying fish and other seafood from its Belfast premises since 1911.

The company has also won a string of national accolades for the outstanding quality of its cured fish. It has won UK Great Taste Awards for its organic salmon and a listing in the Top 50 Foods in 2014 for its lightly smoked cod loin. It currently employs 29 people in its shop and nearby processing plant. The premium organic smoked salmon was again endorsed in this year’s Great Taste Awards.

Northern Ireland’s multi-award winning ice cream brand, Morelli’s, has secured a new deal to supply Morrisons, one of the biggest supermarket chains in Britain.

The new contract sees the brand expanding into Great Britain for the first time, with Morrisons stocking 90 of its stores across the North of England and Midlands with three of Morelli’s most popular flavours; Double Cream Vanilla, Honeycomb and Raspberry Ripple.

Launching in stores on Monday 7 th  October, all varieties will be available to purchase in the 950ml take-home range.

Entry into this new market follows Morelli’s expansion into the Republic of Ireland in 2017 and the brand’s Double Cream Vanilla flavour being named the best in the UK and Ireland at the 2019 Ice Cream Awards in February this year.

Speaking about the announcement, Arnaldo Morelli, who heads up the family business from its headquarters in Coleraine, said: “With such a big retail presence in Great Britain, launching our products to the mainland market with Morrisons is a big achievement for us. It offers the perfect platform to introduce a new customer base to some of our most popular flavours.”

Emily Bell, Ice Cream Buyer at Morrisons, added: “We are looking forward to extending our product range and offering Morelli’s award-winning ice cream to our customers. Morrisons is dedicated to offering a variety of high-quality produce and we think the addition of this well-loved Northern Irish brand is a great fit”.

To support the partnership with Morrisons, Morelli’s has invested in new equipment and an additional 70-pallet freezer to meet demand, housed in the expanded Coleraine production facility that was completed at the end of 2018.

The Morelli family has been making ice cream since 1911. It operates a number of family-owned retail outlets across Northern Ireland and several franchise units, alongside listings in some of the leading supermarkets and convenience stores in Northern Ireland.

For the first time, NI’s supermarket shoppers will be able to buy pumpkins which have been grown on home soil, thanks to a unique partnership between Asda and its main vegetable supplier, Gilfresh.

This year Asda commissioned the Loughgall-based family-run company to grow and supply over 50,000 pumpkins for its 16 NI stores. This will deliver almost half of the total number of pumpkins sold in Asda supermarket’s across NI in the run up to the busy Halloween period.

Due to the unique conditions required to cultivate pumpkins on a commercial scale, Asda had previously been unable to source them in Northern Ireland and depended purely on stocks from specialist farms across England.

As one of Asda’s main vegetable suppliers, and with over 50 years’ experience of crop cultivation, the innovative Gilfresh team rose to the challenge and developed a growing programme to deliver the perfect size and quality of pumpkin.

With the crop now almost ready for harvesting, Danielle Mitchell from Gilfresh said,

“This is a very important and exciting first for Asda and Gilfresh and it highlights both the level of trust in our partnership and the expertise within our business.

“The crop was planted in June and since then, customers have followed its development as they pass our fields on the main road between Portadown and Armagh. We’re delighted with the results and look forward to our first pumpkin harvest.”

Adding his support, Billy Clelland, Quality Manager for Asda NI said,

“Asda is passionate about supporting our NI-based food companies and we’re always looking for ways in which we can help drive innovation and reduce food miles. Gilfresh is one of our long-standing vegetable suppliers and we’re so pleased they’ve helped us achieve this important first which will ensure the Halloween celebrations here are more local than ever!”