Food firms among Northern Irish emerging business leaders

Fourteen food and drink processors are listed among Northern Ireland's emerging companies in new survey.

The group covers a broad range of manufacturers including bread, meat, egg and drink producers and is featured in a story of companies outside the Top 100 by the monthly Ulster Business magazine and sponsored by consultancy KPMG in Belfast.

Heading the list of emerging food and drink processors in Northern Ireland are Diageo Global Supply at Newtownabbey, county Antrim, which produces around 60 percent of the output of Baileys Irish Cream liqueur for worldwide sales, and Cranswick Country Foods of Ballymena, county Antrim.

The highest placed locally-owned business is Skea Egg Farms of Dungannon, county Tyrone, Northern Ireland's largest egg producer.

Other local companies featured include Avondale Foods of Lurgan, county Armagh, a leading supplier of soups, salads and sauces to major UK retailers, Strathroy Dairy of Omsgh, county Tyrone, a producer of milk and cream for retailers such as Aldi, Lynn's Country Foods, Downpatrick, county Down, one of the UK's biggest producer of sausages and, most recently Naked Nitrite-free bacon and ham, under the Finnebrogue Artisan brand and Doherty and Gray, Ballymena, county Antrim, a prominent meat supplier to major retailers.

The survey was carried out by business analysts Dun and Bradstreet and ranked companies in terms of turnover and pre-tax profit from accounts filed at the Companies Registry Office in Belfast. Almost 70 percent of the companies listed in the Top 200 showed growth in turnover during the year.

The companies employ a total in excess of 30,000 people and achieved growth of almost 10 percent year on year.

John Hansen, KPMG partner-in-charge, says: "As a cross-section of the Northern Ireland economy, the list tells a story of innovative, tenacious and outward-looking businesses which havr the ability to compete with the best in the world."