Freshgrass Holdings and Northern Ireland’s Fane Valley Co-operative Society announced that they have reached an agreement to become 50/50 joint owners of Drummonds, subject to the approval of The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. Fane Valley owns White’s Oats of Armagh, the leading producer of porridge oats and other breakfast cereals.

Both parties have confirmed that the key objectives of the Joint Venture will be to continue to support the excellent business relationships formed over the years by Drummonds and to enhance the competitive advantages of the business through a series of new strategic initiatives.

Commenting on the development Liam Woulfe, chairman of Drummonds said, “This is a very exciting opportunity for our excellent staff, cereal growers, agri-customers and all other stakeholders. The primary driver to creating this JV is solely to utilise the strengths and business acumen of both partners to deliver an even more successful Drummonds’ proposition, especially given the increasing focus on the environment and sustainability.”

Trevor Lockhart, chief executive officer, Fane Valley Co-operative Society, added: “Everyone at Fane Valley is looking forward to working together with Liam, the Drummonds’ management team and staff to make Drummonds the very best business it can be, to the benefit of its farmer suppliers, customers, employees and shareholders. In my view, this is an exceptional business partnership and from our discussions and assessments there are great synergies in the vision, ambition and culture of both partners”.

Drummonds, headquartered at Clonee, county Meath is an Irish feed, grain and agronomy company. Based at Craigavon in county Armagh, Fane Valley is a leader in milling, farm supplies and food processing.

The first premium brandy to be developed in Northern Ireland has been launched by Hellbent, a successful small business specialising in the development, production and marketing of South African influenced foods.

Hellbent, which is building sales in the UK and Republic of Ireland for boerewors coiled beef sausages, meatballs, burgers and pork dishes, has teamed up with a distillery at Hartbeespoort, near Johannesburg, to create a brandy aimed at its most important markets.

Incendo is an established and successful distiller of brandy and other premium spirits.

Louis Ludik, who founded Hellbent with fellow South African Schalk van de Merwe in 2018, describes the diversification of the business into spirits as “a logical development that reflects the role of brandy in our culture”. “We were keen to include a brandy in our portfolio but had to look to our homeland because there isn’t currently a distillery producing brandy in either Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland. The new brandy is in line with our business focus on developing food and drink with South African influences in our ‘collision of culture’ ethos that underpins our developing portfolio,” he adds.

Louis and Schalk both came to Northern Ireland to play professional rugby for Ulster and decided to set up a small food business together specialising in the meats they loved especially for BBQs in South Africa.

In 2018, they launched their first range of meats under the Hellbent brand and have since gained substantial sales in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and most recently Great Britain. The entrepreneurs have also gained UK Great Taste Awards for the outstanding quality and taste of the meat products.

Unable to source a distillery to produce a brandy in Northern Ireland, they approached Francois Joubert at Incendo. The Hellbent brandy is the first in a series of drinks they are planning in the near future.

Louis continues: “We were attracted to the distillery because of its impressive reputation for handcrafted spirits in small batches to ensure consistent high quality and rich flavours. We’ve worked closely with Francois and his team at Incendo to create our Hellbent brandy and are immensely excited by the potential of the spirit. Sampling sessions in both Northern Ireland and the Republic have produced extremely positive feedback and encouraged us to launch the brandy.”

Incendo began distilling more than a decade ago and now hand crafts a wide range of premium spirits including brandy, gin and rums using only the best and fully traceable ingredients.

Image: Louis Ludik of Hellbent showing the new brandy

Granny Shaw’s Fudge, an award winning manufacturer of a range of original and flavoured fudges, expanding its product portfolio to include authentic Victorian confectionery.

The family business, which is owned and managed by husband and wife team Glen and Rhonda Houston, is developing the new confectionery product capability using recipes from the 19^th century and has recently completed £50,000 investment in essential machinery from a manufacturer based in Chicago.

“We had been considering how best to expand our existing and successful fudge business when I came across a batch of Victorian confectionery recipes in line with our existing focus on premium products,” Glen explains. “We subsequently experimented with the recipes and produced small batch sample for family and friends to sample. Positive reactions to the samples encouraged me to explore how we could produce them for both local and export markets,” he adds.

Creator of the first genuine fudge factory in Northern Ireland, Glen turned to the internet and other sources for help in pinpointing suitable and flexible systems to manufacture the premium quality of confectionery he wanted to expand successfully the small business which also includes Granny Shaw’s Trading Post, a unique retail outlet in Ballymena which sells the company’s extensive fudge range and other food and drink from local artisans.

“The new equipment enables us to produce a wide range of premium confectionery quickly and cost-effectively in attractive packaging.” continues Glen. “Our first batch of new sweets are likely to include tablet fudge from an old-style recipe that dates back to the 1860s. There’s also scope to manufacture dipping sauces and hard sweets” he adds. A vegan and dairy free range of fudge and tablet will be launched in the next few months.

The company has won a UK Great Taste Award for its handmade, hand-cut kettle-churned soft fudge and traditional made tablet fudge. It has developed a broad range of flavours included salted caramel, chocolate, raspberry ripple and bubblegum in a variety of bag sizes.

Slemish Market Garden in Ballymena has been named the Best Greengrocers in Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the prestigious Slow Food Awards in the UK.

The awards are based on a public vote from thousands of people across the UK over the summer months. Each UK region has its own winners, with the highest number of votes in each category also being the overall UK winner.

Slemish Market Garden gained the national and local awards as the Best Greengrocer for great and nutritious fruit and vegetables to be found anywhere in the UK.

The family business, based near the town’s popular ECOS Nature Park and run by husband and wife team Frank and Linda McCooke and son Matthew, gained the overall UK award along with the Northern Ireland regional titles as Best Greengrocer in the national Slow Food Awards.

Frank, a respected Ballymena native, describes the two awards as “phenomenal recognition” for the company’s longstanding focus on consistently delivering “superb quality and sustainable fruit and vegetables”. “It’s really fantastic for us, a small garden centre and greengrocers in Ballymena, to have been voted the UK’s best by lovers of good, natural food. I am sure there were more than a few eyebrows raised in the south of England, the heartland of Slow Food, on such an important award coming to such a small business in Ballymena.”

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Family: Ballymena family Linda, Matthew and Frank McCooke of Slemish Market Garden won the UK’s and Northern Ireland’s Best Greengrocer title in the Slow Food Awards

Following the success at the 2021 Royal Ulster Premier Beef and Lamb Championships, Alfie Murray Family Butchers is dishing up a treat for customers this January with top-quality, prize-winning lamb available from now until Christmas.

Following the 2021 Royal Ulster Premier Beef & Lamb Championships held at Eikon Exhibition Centre, Balmoral Park, Lisburn, the Killyleagh based butcher purchased the Champion pair of Suffolk Lambs Over 42.5kg, Champion pairs of Dorset Lambs 36 -42.5kg & Over 42.5kg and the Best of Any Other Breed Over 42.5kg.

Prime cuts of lamb from the show are now on sale at the longest established butcher’s shops in Northern Ireland on the shores of Strangford Lough as well as the EuroSpar in Crossgar.

Having been in operation for over 60 years, this popular butcher shop is owned by three generations of the Murray family – Alfie senior, Alfie junior and Ryan.

Alfie Murray Jnr said: “Northern Ireland produces some of the best lamb in the world and I am delighted to have bought top quality livestock from the Royal Ulster Premier Beef & Lamb Championships.

This year the kill out rate was above average with a good yield on all the lambs. Our customers are delighted with the quality of meat and the prime cuts will be available to buy in the lead up to Christmas.”

Caption – Carolyn Greene, Royal Ulster Agricultural Society, joins Alfie Murray Jnr and Ryan Murray from Alfie Murray Family Butchers following the 2021 Royal Ulster Beef & Lamb Championships.

Belfast Distillery Company is strengthening the international reach of its McConnell’s Irish Whisky brand after agreeing a distribution deal with Waldemar Behn in Germany.

The brand has been revived by Belfast Distillery Company since 2020, and has secured partnerships with multiple international distributors since. It is also developing a distillery at Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast.

Through Waldemar Behn, Germany is the latest market to introduce McConnell’s 5 Year Old Blend, the brand’s signature expression.

Belfast Distillery Company chief executive John Kelly said: “McConnell’s brand was born in Belfast in 1776 and we have been working hard to re-establish McConnell’s in our home market, while developing our distribution network internationally. As it says on the label, we are proud to be following in the footsteps of James and John McConnell and we are excited to see McConnell’s Irish whisky travel from Belfast to Boston, and beyond. We are delighted to secure a distribution agreement with Waldemar Behn, one of Germany’s oldest and most well recognised family-owned companies in the alcohol sector.”

Rüdiger Behn, owner and managing director of Waldemar Behn, based near Kiel, commented: “We have been watching the Irish whiskey category grow both in Germany and globally and have been keen to find the right partner in this space. McConnell’s Irish Whisky is exactly what we have been looking for – great liquid and packaging which we know will be a success with German consumers. This could be seen by the reaction received at Bar Convent Berlin and we are pleased to welcome McConnell’s into the Waldemar Behn portfolio.”

Other markets added to the global distribution map for McConnell’s in the second half of 2021 include Poland, Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, China plus Ontario and Alberta in Canada.