Mash Direct, the Northern Ireland specialist in potato and vegetable sides and convenience meals, has been commended for its Curry Chip product in the UK Quality Food Awards.
The company, based on a family farm near Comber in county Down, gained the commendation in the Meal Accompaniment Category in the annual food and drink industry awards.
The Quality Awards showcase and celebrate outstanding innovation in UK food and drink.
Copeland Distillery in Northern Ireland has won a major UK award for one of its most distinctive bottles in the annual UK Packaging Awards in London.
Based at Donaghadee in county Down, Copeland Distillery won the Label of the Year title in the prestigious annual awards for its Smugglers’ Reserve Rum products.
The awards celebrate and showcase innovation and outstanding quality in the UK packaging industry.
Copeland Smugglers’ Reserve rums feature an unusually colourful label design and is described as a blend of dark rum from Barbados and rum distilled in the small batch distillery in Donaghadee.
The Barbados rum has been aged in Kentucky bourbon barrels and the Copeland rum aged in a mixture of French Pinot Noir wine and Quarter Bourbon casks.
Northern Ireland’s Mash Direct, a specialist manufacturer of vegetable sides and convenience meals has now landed a national listing with Sainsbury’s for three of its award-winning vegetable side dishes.
The farm-based company’s traditional Red Cabbage and Beetroot, Broccoli with Cheese and Cauliflower Cheese Gratin are now on sale in Sainsbury’s stores across the UK.
The latest national listing follows similar business for Mash Direct products last month.
Lance Hamilton, sales director at Mash Direct, comments: “We’re delighted to launch three of our multi-award-winning, vegetable side dishes into Sainsbury’s stores nationwide. While available all year round, these products are especially popular throughout autumn/winter, so we’re excited to offer the taste of our farm-fresh produce to even more homes across the UK.”
All three products are available now from the ready meal section of Sainsbury’s Stores.
Mash Direct is among the UK’s most successful producers of veggie products for home cooks in particular.
The business was established by Martin and Tracy Hamilton on the family farm near Comber in county Down. The company was established in 2004 and now sells products throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland. It has also won export business to the US, Middle East and Europe.
Clandeboye Estate, Northern Ireland’s only producer of yoghurt, has been named the UK’s Best in the highly influential Quality Food Awards.
The company, based on an estate near Bangor in county Down, gained the outstanding recognition for the quality and rich flavours of its multi-award winning Madagascan Vanilla Greek Style Yoghurt in the hotly contested Dairy category in the top awards, the most important of the UK’s supermarket grocery sector.
Clandeboye, which sources fresh milk from the estate’s pedigree and award winning dairy herd, was chosen by the expert judges over rival dairy products from Aldi, Arla Foods, Asda and Castle Dairies.
The Quality Food Awards are designed to recognise and reward those products which are leading the way in the market. They have a strong influence on food retailing especially among major supermarkets
Research shows the awards showcase the quality of a winning product and bring confidence to consumers and increase sales. It shows that 74 percent of consumers would trust the quality of a food product carrying the quality logo; 72 percent of consumers had seen the logo before; and 68 percent said they were more likely to buy a product which had won one of the quality awards.
Winning companies can expect extensive marketing support from the awards to showcase their achievement.
Clandeboye now supplies its range of yoghurts to every supermarket in Northern Ireland and to several in the Republic of Ireland especially Aldi-Ireland.
The ambitious company is currently finalising a state-of-the-art creamery on the estate which will provide scope of grow sales in Great Britain, the key target market for the Northern Ireland enterprise. It has already received approaches from retailers in Britain for its Greek style and fruit-infused yoghurts.
The new factory will enable Clandeboye to quadruple production of its range of award-winning luxury yoghurts using fresh milk from the historic estate’s own pedigree Jersey/Holstein herd.
Everything from grazing to production takes place within the Clandeboye Estate. Milk is sourced daily from the herd and those of other local producers – a complete ‘farm-to-spoon’ journey.
The farm currently boasts a herd of around 70 Holsteins and 30 Jerseys which is also not a stranger to awards, winning a string of major UK and Irish championship ribbons and herd competition trophies.
As the only yoghurt manufacturer now located in Northern Ireland, Clandeboye’s mission is to grow the business as sustainably as possible and to maintain the high quality of its natural handcrafted yoghurt offering. The estate has invested extensively in sustainability initiatives.
Clandeboye Estate’s range of Greek style and natural yoghurts were officially launched in 2008 as a farm diversification project by owner the Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava who died last October.
Belfast Distillery Company, the company behind McConnell’s Irish Whiskey and a multi-million-pound distillery has secured a new distribution deal in Poland.
The company has signed a deal with Navigator – Spirit Depot, which will see the company export ‘McConnell’s Irish Whiskey’ in the Eastern European country.
The whiskey firm, now backed by US investment, is currently pushing ahead with a £20 million distillery development and tourist facility at the old Crumlin Road Gaol.
The multi-million-pound venture was first mooted by lottery winner Peter Lavery in 2012.
The proposal, now being taken forward by a number of US-based business figures, secured planning approval in March 2021.
McConnell’s, which dates back to 1776, has been revived as a brand by the Belfast Distillery Company, recently winning a gold medal at the Warsaw Spirits Competition for its five-year-old blend.
The awards have helped build the whiskey’s portfolio internationally, boosting its distribution network.
Chief executive John Kelly said the deal is the latest in the company’s expanding global distribution.
“We have now secured a long-term partnership with Navigator – Spirit Depot in Poland and I am very impressed by their knowledge, trade relationship and passion for quality product,” Mr Kelly said. “We are thrilled to partner with them in Poland.”
Grzegorz Suroweiecki from the Polish distributor, said: “We have seen the growth of the Irish whiskey category over the last number of years and wanted to find the right strategic relationship. We are confident that we have done just that through our partnership with Belfast Distillery Company and McConnell’s Irish Whiskey.”
Shortcross Whiskey named as Winner of New Irish Whiskey Category at the 2021 Irish Whiskey Awards.
Rademon Estate Distillery’s first-ever whiskey – Shortcross Single Malt Whiskey – has just been named as the Winner of best New Irish Whiskey at The Irish Whiskey Awards, which took place on Thursday 11th November at Powerscourt Distillery, Co. Wicklow.
As the first new whiskey to be released from a Northern Ireland distillery in over 100 years, being awarded as the best Irish whiskey is an incredible achievement for the Co. Down based Distillery, who until now, has been best-known as the home of Shortcross Gin.
With the first two casks of Shortcross Single Malt due to be opened in the coming weeks, just 700 bottles from the first-ever release of Shortcross Whiskey are available to reserve at the Rademon Estate Distillery website.
Judging of this year’s awards took place earlier this Summer where organisers, Celtic Whiskey, posted out several hundred, blind tasting packs to members of the Celtic Whiskey Club, Irish Whiskey Society — Dublin and Dingle, Cork Whiskey Society, Waterford Whiskey Society, Kilkenny Whiskey Guild, Ennis Whiskey Club, 1875 Whiskey Club and Belfast Whiskey Club.
Well-regarded for being Northern Ireland’s original small-batch craft gin producers, David and Fiona Boyd-Armstrong, the Founders of Shortcross Gin, announced plans back in 2015 to expand into whiskey production. Following an investment of £1.5 million at the Rademon Estate Distillery in Crossgar, the new single malt whiskey has been entirely produced onsite at Rademon.
Commenting on the company’s win at the Irish Whiskey Awards, Head Distiller and Co-Founder of Rademon Estate Distillery, David Boyd-Armstrong says: “We have been working on bringing the first new release of whiskey from a Northern Ireland distillery in over 100 years since we casked our first barrels almost seven years ago, and to be awarded this top accolade by our peers, just before our first release goes on sale, is fitting timing.
“Fiona and I have invested so much time, effort and funds into the creation of our whiskey distillery and to see our first bottles go on sale in a matter of weeks is just incredible.”
Co-Founder and Managing Director, Fiona Boyd-Armstrong, managing director, adds: “This has been a long time coming, and we are delighted that our fantastic Irish malt whiskey has already been acknowledged by industry, in what we hope is the first of many awards for Shortcross Whiskey.”
“Our early December release is the first in a series of exciting plans that we have for Shortcross Whiskey. We have a packed cask room, full of barrels of whiskey, and throughout our journey, we have used a variety of casks, enabling us to release new and innovative flavours in 2022 and beyond.”
Rademon Estate Distillery was established in 2012 by Fiona and David Boyd-Armstrong, with Shortcross Gin quickly becoming an established brand in the gin market. A total of £3.5m has been invested in Rademon Estate Distillery since it was established and the Estate now houses the distillery, a state-of-the-art visitor centre and bottle shop.