Glastry Farm Ice Cream In EUROSPAR Deal
Glastry Farm Ice Cream is to supply its luxury ice cream and low fat and vegan sorbets to EUROSPAR stores in Northern Ireland in a significant deal for the farm-based producer with Henderson Group.
Based on the family farm of Will Taylor, the founder and managing director of the multi-award winning dairy ice cream and sorbet producer, near Kircubbin in Co Down, Glastry, a Food NI member company, is to supply more than 70 EUROSPAR supermarkets across Northern Ireland.
Glastry is supplying EUROSPAR with four ice cream flavours in tubs – Yellowman Honeycomb; Vanilla Bean; Lemon Meringue; and Chocolate and Salted Caramel; and vegan Raspberry Ruffle Sorbet, a double gold winner in the UK Great Taste Awards.
Sales manager, Rory McLaughlin, commenting on the agreement with Henderson Group, says: “This a real game changer for us because it means our luxury ice cream and sorbet will now be available across Northern Ireland for the first time. Ice cream and sorbet lovers will be able to enjoy our premium products from a network of highly successful EUROSPAR supermarkets within the market leading Henderson Group.
“What the deal does is to give Glastry Farm Ice Cream and sorbets coverage to most parts of the province for the very first time through one distribution point. The access provided to the EUROSPAR network will enable us to reach out to many thousands of potential customers with our creamy ice cream and vegan sorbets.
“While we’ve been working steadily to develop our market reach over the past few years, this agreement makes this possible much quicker than we could have hoped to achieve by our own limited resources as a smaller food enterprise.
“We are, therefore, immensely excited by the potential of this new business for our range of products which are made from fresh cows’ milk sourced from our own pedigree and grass and clover-fed Friesian herd and processed using 75 percent renewable energy. Other ingredients are locally sourced.
“As a result, our naturally delicious products, all made on our working dairy farm, have an exceptionally low carbon footprint,” adds Rory. Ice cream and sorbet production is now virtually zero waste.
Michelle Dineen, Trading Manager at Henderson Wholesale, says the company prides itself in its support for local artisan producers. “We’ve consistently worked with innovative and bespoke local producers helping them expand and bring their ranges to a wider consumer base.
“We’ve some of the world’s finest food crafters here in Northern Ireland and the award winning Glastry Farm brand is up there with the best. We’re pleased to welcome Will and his team to our supplier network and look forward to helping them bring their quality range of ice creams and sorbets taste to many more shoppers locally.”
Henderson Group is a local family business achieving 83rd place on the latest 2019 Sunday Times HSBC Top Track 100 league table of the UK’s private companies.
The group owns the SPAR, EUROSPAR, VIVO, VIVOXTRA and VIVO Essentials franchises in Northern Ireland. Henderson Wholesale has been distributing food and grocery-related products to the convenience retail sector for over 120 years and is the largest operator of its kind in the country.
The group is committed to sourcing local fresh foods from farmers, growers and suppliers, with over 75 percent of fresh products sourced on the island of Ireland.
Operating out of its head office in Mallusk, the group employs over 4,000 employees across Northern Ireland.
Glastry Farm Ice Cream was launched by Will Taylor as a diversification project in 2007 on the back of research he had carried out throughout Europe on various projects. Glastry – the Irish for townland of the green pastures – has been in the Taylor family for six generations.
Diversifying further into sorbets resulted in these being vegan, low fat and egg and dairy free.
The company has gained a string of national awards for the quality and outstanding taste of its ice cream and sorbets. These include gold in the last seven years in the UK Great Taste Awards for its ice cream and sorbets.
In addition, the company’s products have won three gold medals and two silver in Blas na hEireann, the Irish National Food Awards, which are held annually in Dingle, Co Kerry.
