Partridges orders award winning Northern Irish corned beef


Supreme Great Taste champion McCartney's, the award winning Northern Irish butchery business, has added Partridges, the high-end gourmet food stores in London to the developing customer portfolio for its corned beef.



McCartney's, the first Northern Ireland company to win the supreme champion title in the UK Great Taste Awards, has seen top UK retailers such as Fortnum and Mason and Selfridges list its premium corned beef over the past year.



Partridges, a family run business, has two popular stores in London, in Sloane Street and Gloucester Road, for foodies. Partridges also holds the Royal Warrant as Grocers to the Queen.



In addition, the butchery business, based at Moira in County Down, has recently won business from top farm shops such as Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, Gonaldson Farm Shop, Nottinghamshire, Turnbull's Deli, Shaftesbury in Dorset, and Farmer Copley's, Pontefract in West Yorkshire.



The company also supplies the Cadogan Hotel in London's Knightsbridge and has developed very healthy online sales of the premium corned beef.



"We gained over 10 major accounts in Britain and supplied our corned beef to customers in many other parts of the world since winning the Supreme Champion in last year's UK Great Taste Awards," says George McCartney, the fifth generation of McCartney's to run what is now one of Northern Ireland's best known and most successful butchery businesses. He now runs the shop with brother Gordon and his two daughters.



Encouraged by the success in the Great Taste Awards, McCartney's is planning a six figure expansion that will see a significant increase in production of the award winning corned beef, made from heels of silverside from Limousin-sired, grass-fed cattle, and dry-cured for 15 days before being cooked overnight, hand-shredded and pressed.



"Growth in sales of corned beef has been sensational over the past year from the publicity that followed the Great Taste Award," he says. "I believe that we've changed the image of corned beef especially among top chefs in Great Britain and the Republic. We are currently producing around 150 kg of corned beef a week to supply a steadily growing list of regular customers especially in Great Britain."



The expansion, which will triple the size of the business and provide additional employment opportunities, will also see a new deli, specialising in other Northern Irish artisan foods and a coffee shop on the site. 'The deli will give us more space to showcase our own huge range of products and also to present other excellent food from artisan products from other parts of Northern Ireland," he adds.



McCartney's is also a three times Winners of the UK Champion of Champion Sausage MakersCompetition.