Willowbrook Foods ‘top of the crops’ at UK Food Manufacturing Awards

Posted on

County Down-based vegetable and salad business Willowbrook Foods has been named the UK Fresh Produce Manufacturing Company of the Year at the UK Food Manufacture Excellence Awards (FMEAs).

Based on the shores of Strangford Lough, Killinchy and established in 1968, Willowbrook Foods is Ireland’s largest bagged salad processor and supplies some of the UK and Ireland’s largest retail, ingredients manufacturers and foodservice providers.

Under the leadership of founder and Managing Director John McCann MBE, the business has achieved impressive growth in recent years. Turnover has climbed from £21.2M in 2015 to £25M last year and £28M in the 2017 financial year. The company’s turnover currently stands at £33m year to date.

The FMEAs’ independent judging panel praised Willowbrook Foods’ double-digit turnover growth and export success.

Managing Director John McCann MBE said:

“We are delighted to have been honoured with this award as we were up against firm competition from food companies from across the UK. An accolade such as this is reassurance to our customers that our product range is of the highest quality and proof of the ambitious nature of our business.”

“We remain focused on growing our presence across the UK and Ireland by delivering the very best in fresh foods, from mashed potato to bagged salads, prepared vegetables to salad bowls. Innovation is at the core of our business as we seek to create convenient, high-quality solutions to meet the needs of the retail and foodservice sectors.”

The company’s achievements were celebrated in front of hundreds of food industry guests, as Colin Stanley of Willowbrook Foods collected the award from Jon Poole, chief executive of the Institute of Food Science & Technology. They were joined on stage by awards host, English Rugby Union cup winner and former team captain, Matt Dawson.

The annual FMEAs, organised by William Reed’s Food Manufacture Group are in their 17th year and have become the premier showcase for British food and drink manufacturing excellence.

BBC Good Food Show Belfast

Posted on

The BBC Good Food Show returns to the food-loving city of Belfast from 10-12 November at the Belfast Waterfront. See an amazing line up of top chefs and experts cooking LIVE in the Big Kitchen, be inspired by interviews and get up close and personal in book signings with your favourites!

See Your Favourites Cooking LIVE
NEW this year we’re joined by family favourite Nadiya Hussain and Michelin master Michel Roux Jr, plus John Torode and theHairy Bikers are back cooking LIVE in the Big Kitchen!

Be Inspired In A FREE ‘Eat Like a Local’ Session
Enjoy an additional FREE ‘Eat Like a Local’ session in the Big Kitchen as part of your day. Discover more from local restaurant Ox with chef Stevie Toman (Friday), pick up tips fromForestside Cookery School with chef Stephen Jeffers (Sat) or learn more from chef Chris McGowan of restaurant Wine and Brine.

The Whisky Blending Lab
Learn the art of blending in The Whisky Blending Lab. Our expert will guide you through this art form and help you come up with your very own blend, which you’ll get to take home in a miniature bottle.

Taste The Greatness
Learn from the experts in the Taste the Greatness Experience presented by Discover Northern Ireland – we’re excited to be joined by local restaurateurs, Great Taste winners and a fantastic line-up of regional food and drink producers.

Eating & Drinking
This year we’re back with even more options for eating and drinking at the Show. From the BBC Good Food Pop-Up Restaurant to Afternoon Tea, there’s something to suit all tastes. Plus discover new street food vendors including Linen Hill, Pheasant Hill Farm and The Fancy Fox.

Cooking up a storm for Causeway Coast and Glens Restaurant Week

Posted on

Chefs across the Causeway Coast and Glens are preparing to cook up a storm during Restaurant Week.

Following its inaugural success last year, the event returns from November 11th – 19th, offering nine-days of fabulous food and drink experiences.

With a range of quality restaurants, food tours, artisan markets and local producers, the Causeway Coast and Glens has all the right ingredients. A Game of Thrones inspired menu, a lesson in paella-making and guided whiskey tasting are just some of this year’s highlights.

The event was officially launched in the apt surroundings of Dunluce Castle, by the Mayor of Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, Councillor Joan Baird OBE, and representatives from the Borough’s hospitality sector.

Speaking afterwards, the Mayor said: “Dunluce Castle is home to arguably our area’s most famous kitchen, which according to myth fell into the sea during a storm hundreds of year ago.  With its combination of history, legend and a stunning cliff-edge location, I was delighted to join with some of our local chefs and tourism operators to launch Restaurant Week against this iconic backdrop.

Chefs will be working hard in kitchens right across the Borough to create memorable dining experiences and I’m delighted to see the Causeway Coast and Glens establishing itself as a ‘must-visit’ foodie destination.”

Kerrie McGonigle, Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council’s Destination Manager, said: “Restaurant Week aims to celebrate our fabulous foodie scene, and our trade partners have come up with an exciting range of theme nights, speciality menus and tasting sessions. We’re delighted to be working in partnership with them as we showcase the best of local produce and exciting culinary experiences. All of this combined with our warm welcome and stunning scenery means there has never been a better time to visit.”

If this isn’t enough to whet your appetite, Restaurant Week will coincide with Atlantic Sessions. Winner of the Tourism Innovation award at the Northern Ireland Tourism Awards earlier this year, the music festival offers intimate gigs from an unrivalled line-up of performers. It runs in venues across Portrush, Portstewart and Portballintrae from November 16th – 19th. Go to www.atlanticsessions.com for full details.

To keep up to date with the latest news about Restaurant Week, including information about accommodation and visitor attractions across the Causeway Coast and Glens, go to www.visitcausewaycoastandglens.com, follow us on Twitter @VisitCauseway or find us on Facebook at Visit Causeway Coast and Glens.

Free-From Trend Offers Opportunities For Local Companies

Posted on

Recent market research figures from Kantar Worldpanel have indicated that the free- from category has become the fastest growing food category. And it’s a category in which many of our companies are achieving success. Many more will clearly have to review their ingredients in line with this important market trend.

Free-from foods has been boosted by 36 percent year on year and 54 percent of the UK population purchased a free-from product during the first quarter of 2017 – 3.3 million more people than last year

Many consumers put their interest in free from down to a variety of concerns including allergies, intolerances, health, animal welfare, environment and weight management. Many are switching to free from either permanently or as part of a pick and mix approach to suit their lifestyles.

Preventing even faster growth of the category is a perception among consumers that free-from foods are more expensive. This means that existing companies and others planning to enter the category need to look closely at their costs to be able to compete and generate a profit. 

A growing number of focused campaigns, including last week’s curious World Plant Milk Day, have led to consumers being better informed than ever before about the benefits of free-from products.

Free-from is manifestly not a fad. It’s not going to go away.  Most of our local supermarkets, delis and independent retailers now feature free from foods from a growing number of local products, many of which have won national awards for quality and taste, on their shelves and chill cabinets.

What the various focused campaigns are doing is to encourage more consumers to look more closely at their food and not just in terms of fat and sugar content but also in gluten, wheat, dairy and eggs.

While the quality, taste and provenance of locally produced food are now well recognised here, trends towards free-from products will impact their performance.

Our smaller companies clearly do need to keep abreast of the developing trend towards food and drink perceived as being healthier. Fortunately, there are bodies around, including the Food Innovation Centre at Loughry, Comber, Foodovation at the North West Regional Further Education College in Londonderry as well as Belfast Metropolitan Institute, to help them to either create new products or adapt existing ones.

These organisations can also help with the essential nutritional information on product labels. Invest NI, for instance, offers help in these areas through its Innovation Voucher programme, which provides funding for agreed projects that enable smaller firms to link up with universities or colleges.

Invest NI’s Business Information Centre in Belfast also holds substantial library documentary and online material on market trends worldwide.

Innova Market Insights, furthermore, identified ‘Plant Powered Growth’ as one of its top trends for this year, and the figures suggest this trend will continue to gather momentum.

Another developing trend here is the interest in wild herbs and plants among leading chefs, including Dani Barry at EIPIC, Belfast, Will Brown at the Old Schoolhouse, Comber and Paul Cunningham at Brunel’s in Newcastle, now increasingly looking for very different ingredients and turning to foraging for edible plants and flowers. I was privileged to spend some time with a group of local chefs who were very knowledgeable about edible wild plants, which was fascinating.

Consumer tastes are changing and new opportunities are emerging for producers with fingers on the pulse.

Chefs Help Raise The Profile Of Our Food

Posted on

It’s impossible to put a monetary value on endorsements by international publications of local restaurants to the hospitality industry here. But what is clear is that the sort of positive comments about our restaurants and food now appearing regularly in major magazines and newspapers exerts an important influence of people considering a trip to Northern Ireland.

Some 16 Northern Irish restaurants were listed among the best in Britain in the latest review of restaurants by the influential Good Food Guide from high-end retailer Waitrose.   Two, OX and EIPIC, both in Belfast were named among the top 50 in the UK. Quite an endorsement by the publication which celebrates quality eateries in local areas and showcases newcomers.

It was fantastic to see Bull and Ram in Ballynahinch included, a restaurant which is now moving to set up a new location in Belfast’s university area. Other publications have also recently lauded the food created at Saul McConnell’s first restaurant, Noble in Holywood…justifiably. And Ballyrobin House has also won praise from Jean-Christophe Novelli.

Food NI continues to invest time and staff resources on measures to raise Northern Ireland’s profile as a destination for great food in Britain and especially the Republic of Ireland. We continue to work with food writers, journalists and bloggers to achieve coverage for the hospitality industry here through introductions to local restaurants and their chefs.

In addition, we’ve also set up meetings with local producers, especially smaller businesses, to showcase the quality, provenance and outstanding taste of their products. It’s work which profiles the creative people behind our exceptional hospitality and food stories. Greater resources would enable us to do even more including following the contacts already made and expanding the base of influential people ready to help us promote Northern Ireland.

We need to intensify this work to build on the achievements over the past few years especially the hugely successful Year of Food and Drink. We have to keep our foot on the pedal. Both hospitality and food have immense potential to contribute more to the growth of the Northern Ireland economy and the wellbeing of rural communities especially in business starts, employment and skills.

Food NI continues to support Hospitality Ulster and the airports in their efforts to persuade government that action in areas such as VAT and Airport Passenger Duty would help to accelerate the growth in hospitality in particular.

The latest tourism figures are certainly immensely encouraging.  There was a record one million overnight trips taken in Northern Ireland during January to March 2017, an increase of six percent. Visitors from out of state markets, especially Great Britain and the Republic, spent £117 million (+15%) and visitors from all markets combined, including Northern Ireland, spent a record £170 million, a seven per cent increase on the same period in 2016.

Aided by a favourable currency rate, visitors from the Republic increased by 36 per cent. Hotels delivered a record level performance during the first half of the year with almost one million hotel rooms sold and average room occupancy reaching 70 per cent.  Events such as the fantastic Women’s Rugby World Cup final stages at the Kingspan in Belfast led to ‘booked out’ signs on hotels in the Greater Belfast area. According to Tourism NI’s latest industry barometer, more than three-fifths of attractions have reported increases in visitor numbers compared with January to June 2016.

The signs are promising, especially since they are matched by an increase in visitors perceptions about our food and drink, and it’s important to acknowledge the role of everyone involved in food and drink that have worked so hard to raise our reputation in hospitality.

Innovative Food NI ‘stars’ at Irish Quality Food Awards

Posted on

More than a dozen innovative products from Northern Ireland companies were successful in the Irish Quality Food and Drink Awards 2017. Six Food NI members were successful in the awards which influence major retailers across the island.

The prestigious awards, held in Dublin, recognised the quality and originality of Irish food and drink supplied, in particular, to retailers across the island.

Winners from Northern Ireland ranged from smaller artisan businesses such as Clandeboye Estate Yogurt for a product supplied to Aldi Ireland’s Select Range – Greek Style Yogurt with Mango and Lime – to major manufacturers such as Dale Farm, Northern Ireland’s largest dairy company, for its Lidl Ireland Rathdarragh Extra Mature Cheddar in the cheese category. Both are active Food NI member companies

Other Food NI winners were:

Rich Sauces, Newtownards, county Down for its chipotle sauce in added ingredients for foodservice;

Golden Popcorn, Antrim for Sweet and Salty Duo Popcorn;

Deli Lites, Warrenpoint, county Down and Applegreen for Vitality Salad; and

White’s Speedicook Oats, Tandragee, county Armagh and Aldi Ireland for Organic Porridge;

Launched in 1979, the Quality Food Awards are the most prestigious awards for food and drink products on sale in UK grocery outlets, and this is due in large part to the transparency and robustness of the judging process.

Due to huge demand from the Irish market, the Irish Quality Food and Drink Awards were launched in 2013 for the retail sector and the Irish Café Quality Food Awards launched in 2015 to recognise the foodservice sector. They were  rebranded in 2017 as the Irish Foodservice Quality Food Awards  to better represent the marketplace.

Expert judging panels are comprised of chefs, chef-lecturers, home economists, food writers, and consultants, restaurateurs, food technologists and representatives from regional food groups, all of whom bring their extensive knowledge to bear in the process.

The Irish Quality Food Awards are unique in that they reward great tasting products, with the finest of flavours, textures and aromas. They reward nutritious products, with the finest ingredients lists, while also recognising innovation, great packaging and presentation.

The awards not only reward achievements in new product development, but also point the way for future success through continual innovation and creativity. Each year the awards demonstrate the capacity of retailers and manufacturers to create marvellous new products.