Top food distributor backs artisan foods
Top food distributor Crossgar Foodservice, based in Northern Ireland, is expanding its Provenance Collection of artisan foods to drive faster growth in sales in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.
The company is expanding the collection by adding new premium products from its own beef, poultry and pork processing operations and introducing artisan foods sourced from smaller Northern Ireland producers.
The decision to expand the Provenance Collection follows the success of its existing range particularly with high-end hotels and restaurants.
Existing products from its own processing operations, including Crossgar Meats and Crossgar Poultry, such as its Traditional Irish Dexter Beef and Lissara Farm Corn Fed Free-Range Chicken and Duck have also gained a series of UK Great Taste Awards.
The collection has recently been expanded to include Gloucester Old Spot Pork, Dorset Lamb, Dry Aged Irish Beef, all sourced from its own network of farmers in Northern Ireland.
Agreements with smaller artisan producers in Northern Ireland have enabled Crossgar Foodservice to provide distribution throughout Ireland of premium ice cream from Morelli's, Coleraine, one of Ireland's best known and a multi-award winning producer of ice creams and sorbets, hand churned butter from the Abernethy Butter Company, Dromara, as well as game from neighbouring Rademon Estate, Crossgar. These products are now being marketed to Crossgar's customers throughout the UK.
John McVeigh, Crossgar Foodservice's commercial manager, explaining the decision to expand the Provenance Collection, says: "We launched the initial collection in 2008 in response to a demand, especially from chefs, for beef and poultry raised using traditional farming techniques. They wanted succulent food with provenance they could count on.
"What we have done is to use our own knowledge and expertise in beef and poultry processing that we had through our Crossgar Meats and Crossgar Poultry plants and our longstanding relationships with local farmers to develop a range of premium products using traditional techniques passed down through generations.
"The initiative proved an outstanding success and has led to customers here and in our other markets asking if we could supply other artisan foods. To meet these requests, we decided to approach smaller companies in Northern Ireland, particularly those that had gained UK Great Taste Awards or other national awards and could meet our quality and delivery requirements, and to invite them to become part of our Provenance Collection.
"When sourcing from these companies, as well as from our network of farmers, we were looking for food which stood head and shoulders above the rest in terms of both the way it was produced and its flavour. It's our intention to continue to expand the collection with other foods from traditional artisan producers."
Crossgar Foodservice has extensive business in the Republic of Ireland and is aiming to expand its customer base in Great Britain, where it has an established relationship with 3663, which it represents throughout the Island of Ireland.
Established in 1959, Crossgar Foodservice, which employs over 230 people, currently secures over 40 per cent of its business from public and private sector clients in the Republic. It recently gained a major contract to supply beef, pork, poultry and eggs to the prison service for meals in its 14 institutions throughout the Republic. It has also secured business from the Health Service Executive and the Department of Defence, both based in Dublin.
Contracts won in the Republic have helped the company, which has sales of around €50m per annum, to achieve 25 per cent growth over the past few years.