Yellow Door Deli lands at Dublin International Airport
Northern Ireland's Yellow Door Deli has won its biggest business to date in the Republic of Ireland - a contract to supply a number of food outlets at Dublin International Airport.
The award-winning deli, based at Portadown in county Armagh, has been targeting the Republic for fast growth over the past five years. The new business at the busiest transport hub in the island of Ireland - it handled almost 20 million passengers last year from hundreds of global locations - is a substantial boost for the family-owned food company.
Yellow Door, winner of the Deli/Farm shop Signature Dish in this year's UK Great Taste Awards, will initially supply food outlets at the airport with traditional Northern Irish delicacies - traybakes using ingredients from other producers in Northern Ireland including bramley apples from orchards in county Armagh and Old Bushmills Irish Whiskey from county Antrim
Simon Dougan, Yellow Door's founder and managing director, says: "This is a tremendously important and exciting contract that gives us a huge opportunity to showcase our products and expertise at one of the most significant travel centres in the Republic. What we are doing is bringing the tastes and flavours from Northern Ireland to travellers using the airport.
"We already use local ingredients as far as possible in our existing products and have begun to develop quality traybakes that reflect Northern Irish traditions and the region's very rich home bakery heritage," he adds.
The artisan deli, bakery and catering business, which launched a major sales drive in the Republic in 2009, has seen its sourdough breads in particular secure substantial business in foodservice especially from high-end hotels, such as The Merrion in Dublin city centre, and leading restaurants and cafes in the greater Dublin area. Sales in the Republic grew by around 25 per cent last year.
Formed in 1993 by Mr Dougan, a successful chef, the Yellow Door Deli has also supplied customers in Britain and further afield. In addition to its bakery and other food production, the company has carried out catering contracts in Britain and other parts of Europe. Catering work has including events surrounding last year's successful of G8 Global Summit in county Fermanagh.
The deli expanded into the Republic on the back of its success in the Northern Ireland market, where it has been successfully wholesaling hand-made breads, savoury pies and quiches and patisserie products for the past 11 years.
The traybakes, traditional Irish breads, patisserie products and savouries are hand-made in the modern bakery from only the finest locally sourced ingredients including fruit and vegetables that we grow ourselves. This means that customers can count on the provenance of all its products, which are made without additives or preservatives and flour that is not treated with bleach.