Taste innovations behind success of Go Pig, Belfast ‘heat to eat’ leader
Heat-to-eat meal innovator Go Pig , a FoodNI member in Belfast, has created a range of healthy, nutritious foods for convenience stores, gyms, and for home delivery across Northern Ireland. In addition to its growing sales here, Go Pig is making a significant impact with health conscious shoppers in the Republic.
Based in Titanic Quarter, the company, owned by experienced businessman James Hutchinson, the managing director, and food creator chef Gary Milligan, has developed an extensive range of convenience meals featuring locally sourced ingredients, the most recent being a ‘guilt-free’, high protein and low sugar chicken carbonara.
Now operating from a 16,000 sq. ft. unit at Channel Commercial Park, the innovation-led business was launched in 2016 and now supplies the likes of Eurospar, Centra, SuperValu, NISA and Mace here and leading convenience stores in the Republic through a distribution deal with S&W in Newry.
The ambitious enterprise, which was started by James in his home kitchen, has just appointed an experienced commercial manager, Heather McCracken, to drive sales faster in both Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Go Pig, which employs 28 people, made a substantial investment in the new premises and a state-of-the-art kitchen facility, where they plan to develop innovative new products to add to its existing range. Later this month, the business plans to introduce a range of burritos.
James says: “We develop nutritionally balanced, low calorie, high protein meals for health conscious consumers that are ready to eat in minutes.
“Our ethos is to provide customers with affordable and delicious products from the best quality ingredients.
“Our meals are all chef prepared and high quality ready to eat that are designed for convenience without compromise. They are made fresh in Belfast and delivered chilled, not frozen – offering a premium alternative to traditional ready meals.
We work with various food agencies to discover latest trends to stay ahead of our competitors in terms of tasty meal experiences.”
Go Pig has a strong community focus and donates around 1,500 meals every year to various local charities.
