Rapeseed Oil Pioneer Broighter Gold Celebrates 10th Anniversary
Broighter Gold, Northern Ireland’s multi-award winning pioneer of quality cold-pressed rapeseed oils is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its foundation.
The company, based on a family farm near Limavady in county Londonderry, is the brainchild of Leona and Richard Kane. They launched the small business in 2011. While Richard focused on the extensive arable, including oil seed rape, and livestock farm, Leona drove what has become a major supplier of rapeseed oils to retailers and chefs through the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.
“We sell across Northern Ireland in butchers, delis, fruit and veg shops, including Sainsburys, Supervalu and Centrastores. We also sell in the Irish Republic in selected shops. Export customers include Liberty in London London and Almaya in Dubai,” she says.
In addition, the ambitious family enterprise, which began as a farm diversification scheme, is geared for further growth at home and abroad.
Broighter Gold – named after an Iron Age gold horde found on the farm in 1896, has created an impressive portfolio of original cold pressed oils from the farm’s oilseed rape that includes unique flavours including Black Truffle and Porcini, Basil and Garlic and Rosemary and Lemon that are the preferred choice of chefs in many parts of Ireland.
In addition to the development of rapeseed oil, the company has expanded into industrial tourism by developing an exhibition centre through the international EconoMuseenetwork that enables visitors to see how the oils are produced and used in cooking.
Looking back over the decade the award-winning enterprise has been in business, Leona says: “I am extremely proud of the great team that we’ve created at Broighter Gold and the range of original oils we’ve developed.
“It’s immensely encouraging that we are continuing to grow through the pandemic, which demonstrates the resilience of the business especially when many of our customers in hospitality had to close,” ads Leona.
She attributes the outstanding success of the artisan business to “the consistency and quality of our oils and the productionprocess”.
“But we have also had to adapt to environmental issues that impact our farm and growing climate challenges,” she adds.
Justifiably, Leona is proud of the many awards won over the past 10 years. “We have won Blas na hEireann Best Producer in County Derry for five years in a row. We were also delighted to have won Best UK Producer in the UK with Hotel Indigo in London a few years ago. We were up against some of the greatest food producers across the UK.
“Being nominated for the British Farming Awards, getting through to the finalist and then being invited to the awards ceremony in Birmingham was a highlight for us as farmers. We won Diversification Innovator of the Year (Small to Medium) Business. We have also won a string of UK Great Taste awards for quality and outstanding flavours,” she adds.
Leona is confident the next decade will be “very exciting” for the business. “We have a successful brand that’s widely recognised and a strong portfolio of customers. In addition,we have far reaching plans to develop the business in the food industry. We have a strong platform for faster growth. Our sales of existing oils, for instance, doubled during the pandemic through our e-commerce site as well as to stockists and supermarkets,” she adds.
