SWEET GB DEAL FOR NORTHERN IRELAND ICE CREAM MAKER

Windrush Frozen Foods (WFF) has signed a distribution agreement with Tickety-Moo, the Northern Ireland farm-based ice cream maker. Based at Witney in Oxfordshire, WFF will now distribute Tickety-Moo products to foodservice clients across the UK. Tickety-Moo, located on a family dairy farm in County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland's picturesque lake district and previously known as Tully Meadows, produces a range of luxury ice cream from milk from a prize-winning herd of Jersey cows. WFF is a leading manufacturer and supplier of specialty frozen foods for the UK foodservice industry. Its customers include caterers, restaurants and institutional foodservice operators. WFF operates two distribution centers and offers same day delivery services. The business was founded in 1986. The WFF agreement is the first distribution deal in Great Britain for Tickety-Moo, which was set up in 2005 by Gareth Grey and brother-in-law Steve Giles on the Grey family farm at Killadeas, as a diversification project in rural Fermanagh. The small company saw its sales double last year, mostly to top restaurants and hotels in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It also secured supply deals with Tesco Ireland and Superquinn. It has invested heavily in blast-freezing technology as well as packaging and branding over the past two years. Tickety-Moo managing director Gareth Grey says: ???We are thrilled by our success to date and delighted with the new GB distribution deal with Windrush Frozen, which was very impressed with the quality of our products and different attitude to branding. We always knew that we had the quality product to perform well in the fiercely competitive ice cream market. We believe that we've created a premium product and a distinctive brand that sets us apart.??? Tickety-Moo ice cream is available in a range of flavours from vanilla to ???Just Jersey' and white chocolate and strawberry. In addition to catering cartons, the company provides the ice cream in 120ml and 500ml tubs for retailers.Tickety-Moo's success demonstrates the values embedded in the recently launched ???Northern Ireland Good Food Is In Our Nature??? campaign.