Fivemiletown Cheese brings Great Taste to Belfast International Airport
Business Lounge travellers at Belfast International Airport are now able to experience the distinctive flavours of Fivemiletown Creamery's award winning cheese from a decision to focus on local food. The creamery's cheese gained five gold stars in the latest UK Great Taste Awards, announced at the weekend.
The airport has linked up with Fivemiletown to offer around 30,000 passengers who use the lounge annually the opportunity to snack on speciality cheese products that have won a string of international awards for taste and quality.
Fivemiletown Creamery is supplying soft brie, blue and goats' cheese, including Ballybrie, Ballyblue and Cooneen, along with its Oakwood Smoked Cheddar for us in the airport's plush Business Lounge, which is also used by First Class passengers on the popular Continental service to New York's Newark Airport.
The creamery's latest contract was announced by Owen Jones, Fivemiletown's Business Development Manager, and Brian Carlin, Commercial Director at Belfast International Airport.
Mr Jones said: "Winning the contract from such a prestigious customer as Belfast International Airport is a marvellous boost for the creamery and an important endorsement of the quality of our speciality cheese.
"Travellers will be able to experience cheese that's rated among the best in the UK and Ireland. As well as quality, they can count on the provenance of our cheese because it's sourced from high protein milk provided by our own farmers in the lush pastures of the Clogher Valley.
"The contract is also an immensely important boost for our strategic focus on expanding our foodservice business."
Mr Carlin said: "While we've always used food from local suppliers in the Business Lounge we now intend to source from Northern Ireland companies wherever possible.
"We recognise that Northern Ireland has some superb food and drink and we want to showcase it to international business travellers in particular who regularly use the lounge. Over 60 per cent of all passengers travelling to and from Northern Ireland for business purposes use the airport. Business passengers now account for 30 per cent of the airport's total passengers.
"Fivemiletown Creamery is among the first to benefit from this approach. It was the obvious choice when we decided to include to offer a premium cheese selection from a local supplier."
In the 2011 Great Taste Awards, announced over the weekend by the UK Guild of Fine Food, Fivemiletown Creamery gained gold awards for its Natural Goats' Log, its Boilie Goats' Cheese with Oil and Herbs, its Cooneen Goats' Cheese wedge and its Extra Mature Cheddar.
Established for more than 100 years, Fivemiletown Creamery employs 80 people in processing cheddar and speciality cheese, mostly from milk supplied by 60 farmers in the Clogher Valley.
The creamery now supplies cheese to many of the world's biggest retailers including Wal-Mart in the US, Harrods, Asda, Sainsbury's and Tesco in the UK, and Galeries Lafayette stores in Paris and throughout France.
PICTURE CAPTION: PREPARING FOR TAKE-OFF at Belfast International Airport, left, Brian Carlin, Operations Director at Belfast International Airport, Deirdre Graffin, Business Support Executive at the airport, and Owen Jones, Fivemiletown Creamery's business manager.