Yellow Door Bakery targets GB on back of Irish success

Northern Ireland's Yellow Door Bakery has achieved 25 per cent year-on-year growth in the Republic of Ireland over the past two years.

The artisan bakery, which launched a major sales drive in the Republic in 2009, has seen its sourdough breads in particular secure substantial business in foodservice especially from high-end hotels, such as The Merrion in Dublin city centre, and leading restaurants and cafes in the greater Dublin area.

Formed in 1993 by top chef Simon Dougan, the Yellow Door Bakery is an award winning bakery that is now seeking to build on its success in Ireland by following up inquiries from potential customers in Great Britain from its success in winning a string of golds in the UK Guild of Fine Food's Great Taste Awards and its participation at events such as the Speciality and Fine Food shows. It aims to appoint a wholesaler in Britain soon.

The bakery moved into the Republic on the back of its success in the Northern Ireland market, where it has been successfully wholesaling hand made breads, savoury pies and quiches and patisserie products for the past 11 years.

Customers in the Republic are also boosting sales of the bakery's speciality Irish breads such as its unique apple and cider soda bread from apples from local orchards in County Armagh and traditional Irish wheaten loaves, both of which gained gold stars in the recent UK Great Taste Awards.

In addition to the success of its Irish breads with the judging panel, the bakery's contemporary breads including Ryefield goats' cheese and fire roasted foccacia bread also gained a Great Taste gold.

Yellow Door's sales manager Gary Dougan attributes the bakery's growing success to a strategic decision to deploy funding and other resources to expand sales outside Northern Ireland.

"Our success in the Great Taste Awards and from our participation in major food shows in Great Britain and the Republic has given us the confidence that we can compete in terms of quality, flavour, innovation and value for money in both these important markets.

"All our breads, both traditional Irish and international, patisserie products and savouries are handmade in our bakery from only the finest locally sourced ingredients including fruit and vegetables that we grow ourselves. This means that customers can count on the provenance of all our products. We don't use any additives or preservatives and our flour is not treated with bleach."

The bakery currently produces around 45 different types of bread that are distributed every morning to key accounts in the Republic by its own fleet of vans and also through a distribution deal with a leading foodservice company.

Pic caption: Simon and Gary Dougan from The Yellow Door Bakery.