New Euro market 'wins' for artisan granola producer

Just Live a Little, the Northern Irish artisan producer of breakfast cereals, has won its first business in a raft of European markets including Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium and Slovenia.

The export deals are for the Northern Ireland family firm's five popular granolas including the gluten free and no added sugar varieties. The latest agreements mean that Just Live a Little is now selling around 60 per cent of its luxury breakfast cereals to customers outside Northern Ireland.

Based at Portaferry in county Down, Just Live a Little is supplying the granolas to established and successful distributors in each market - Anamac in Porto, Portugal, the Taste of America supermarket in Madrid, Spain, A.P.Distribuzione in Italy, ISPC, Gent in Belgium, Epicurean of Ljubljana, Slovenia which counts among its customers Mercator, the country's biggest supermarket chain

The granolas are handmade and are preservative free and have been created by husband and wife team David and Jill Crawford, founders of Just Live a Little in 2011. The handcrafted granolas are slow baked and are available in a range of delicious flavours.

Sales director Jill Crawford, commenting on the new exports, says: "We are delighted to have won business in such an extensive range of European markets. The new markets are encouraging breakthrough sales from our sharp focus on growing business outside Northern Ireland. We've devoted time and other resources to the development of a network of well-established distributors offering channels to market that fit our gourmet products.

"We also sealed deals recently with Netto in Sweden and Foodist in Germany for our breakfast products. These followed earlier exports to key markets in Taiwan, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia. In addition, our luxury breakfast cereals are available from leading UK supermarkets including Waitrose, Tesco and Asda and from on-line retailers such as Ocado and Amazon.

The Northern Ireland company is benefiting from a global market towards healthier products that combine quality, outstanding flavour, wholesomeness and provenance. Cereals are seen as offering higher intakes of key micronutrients including thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, biotin, folate, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, iron and zinc than non-consumers.

Breakfast cereal consumption was also related to higher intakes of calcium, attributable to higher milk consumption.