Northern Ireland’s Hellbent South African Sausages On Growth With Aldi
Hellbent, the Northern Ireland producer of traditional South African Boerewors sausages, will be supplying Aldi supermarkets in the Republic of the Ireland from the end of this month.
The company, which is based in Belfast and also produces South African recipe burgers and meatballs, has been included in the popular Grow with Aldi scheme.
The initiative offers smaller food businesses from the Republic and Northern Ireland an opportunity to appeal to customers and to win a long-term contract from the leading German discounter retailer.
Hellbent’s distinctive coiled beef sausages go on sale from 31stMay in many Aldi Ireland supermarkets in the Republic. Aldi is not present in the Northern Ireland grocery market.
Louis Ludik, who founded Hellbent, now a Food NI member,in 2018 with fellow South African Schalk van Der Merwe, says: “This is massive for us, an unbelievable opportunity to win our first sales in the Republic of Ireland. We approached Aldi with our sausages and burgers and they decided to include the Boerewors in the Grow with Aldi programme. It’s very exciting and another marvellous boost for the business.
Originally from South Africa, Ludik is known across Northern Ireland, the Republic and parts of Europe in his role as a popular player with Ulster Rugby. Van Der Merwe, also from South Africa, played for Ulster.
The beef sausages use beef from Northern Ireland farmers with a distinctive blend of spices and have recently been listed by leading Northern Ireland food distribution business Henderson Group for its network of EUROSPAR supermarkets.
Around 30 EUROSPAR stores in Northern Ireland are now selling Hellbent’s original sausages, meatballs and burgers.
The Hellbent products are the outcome of months of product development and testing with the Ulster University Food and Consumer Tasting Suite.
Ludik adds: “The South African culture revolves around incredible home-grown food and there is so much of that in Northern Ireland. We created Hellbent to be an integral part of the local food offering here.”
