McErlain’s Bakery in Northern Ireland, one of the leading craft bakeries, has launched a new selection of its luxury traybake and cupcake treats.

The new products from the family bakery are a response to customers and suppliers in the company’s ongoing market research into the views of regular customers and from its extensive network of suppliers.

High quality flavours and years of baking expertise have gone into the mix to provide an exciting new offering to join the well-known anchor products of firm family favourites. Feedback and on both products has been extremely positive.  They reflect the latest baking trends and the views of younger consumers in particular.

The traybake flavours include Belgian chocolate tiffin, cookie dough salted millionaire and biscoff rocky road whilst a twist on old classics such as caramel slices, raspberry ruffle and fifteens create the perfect assortment to suit all tastes. Cupcake Treats offer chocolate, vanilla and strawberry sponge with whipped frosting topped with eye catching decorations and come in handy four packs to comprise a range for all ages.

Throughout the generations and accompanying transformations, the McErlain brothers insist that two things remain unchanged: McErlain’s reputation for quality and taste.

Slow Food Causeway and Taste Causeway members scooped five out of 10 prestigious Slow Food Northern Ireland Awards.

The awards were held on Friday December 10th in a night of celebration as local businesses across Northern Ireland were recognised for their dedication to deliver quality and sustainable food products and fulfilling the movement’s vision of a good, clean and fair food society.

Created seven years ago in London, the acclaimed Slow Food awards are best known for being “truly democratic” due to no prior shortlisting and decision only by public vote except for the Person of the Year, which is chosen solely by the regional director for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. 

Out of the 10 regional awards, five Slow Food Causeway members (who are also members of Taste Causeway) were successful including Best Butcher which went to Corndale Farm in Limavady, Best Baker for Ursa Minor in Ballycastle, Best Fishmonger went to Native Seafood based in Portstewart, while Best Deli or Grocer was awarded to Warkes Deli, also in Portstewart and Veal Charcuterie at Broughgammon Farm was given the Champion Slow Food Product.

Speaking of the awards, Director for Slow Food Northern Ireland, Paula McIntyre said: “It’s a delight to see the public vote recognise the wonderful Slow Food producers and retailers in the region of Northern Ireland, and, in particular, the Causeway Coast and Glens. Coupled with the launch of Slow Food Causeway and the six month series of Slow Food launch events and experiences, these awards, across five of the 10 categories, are further recognition of the commitment of everyone involved in Slow Food Causeway to the global Slow Food movement”.

Slow Food Causeway also celebrates Northern Ireland’s unique culinary heritage with indigenous breeds, fish from loughs, world class produce and progressive artisans contributing to the agri-food sector in the province.

Shane Holland, executive chairman of Slow Food in the UK said the awards were important for bringing increased trade to the area.

He added: “We know how important these awards are – both to the producers and businesses but also shoppers alike. These awards matter to the winners, many of whom experience a large increase in business, and some previous winners have gained new retail opportunities on their wins”.

Slemish Market Garden are the first NI business to have been awarded a Slow Food UK award this year crowned within the Greengrocer of the Year category.

Belfast Coffee Roasters has moved into larger premises and installed a new state-of-the-art coffee roaster on the back of substantial growth in the business over the past 18 months. The small business almost doubled turnover in the period.

The successful business has moved to larger premises at Belfast’s Townsend Enterprise Park – a charitable organisation whose aim it is to stimulate social and economic regeneration.

Owner, Allen Cox believes the growth of the business is down to more people working from home during the pandemic.

He explains: “It has been a very busy 18 months. We are very fortunate that just a few weeks before the pandemic hit, we created our first e-commerce website, the timing couldn’t have worked out better. So, when the stay at home and ‘work from home’ message went out, that’s when we saw demand sky-rocket. Previously the majority of our business relied on sales of our products to coffee shops, restaurants and shops, but as this market closed overnight, a new one eclipsed it. People were no longer able to nip out to buy their favourite brew at the local coffee shop, so, they started to search for a company offering freshly roasted, ethically sourced, coffee that tasted great and could be delivered to their door. Luckily, we were able to fulfil that demand, and we were extremely busy all throughout the entire 18 months. So much so, that I employed a further full-time member of staff, moved to much larger premises and doubled our turnover. From our unit in Townsend Enterprise Park, we were shipping our products all over the world, to places like Argentina, America and even Hong Kong. I am immensely grateful for the support of our loyal customers for our business throughout this time.”

Image: Allen Cox, director Belfast Coffee Roasters pictured with Margaret Patterson McMahon, chief executive of Townsend Street Business Park

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.