OCADO adds Northern Irish gluten-free meats

Gluten-free sausages, burgers and meatballs from Doherty Meats in Northern Ireland have been listed by OCADO, the leading UK online retailer.

The company, based at Londonderry, will also supply its Superior Irish Pork Sausages which are already on sale in Britain with a leading supermarket. The sausages are available in packs of 16 at 720g.

The five products, four of them gluten-free, will be on sale from the beginning of July. The gluten-free products are pork sausages in 454g packs, cocktail pork sausages 400g, beef burgers 454g and beef meatballs 450g. The OCADO listing is the first for Doherty's, among the most successful Northern Irish meat processors.

Brian McQuaid, sales manager at Doherty's, commenting on the new business, says: "Gaining a listing with OCADO for five of our products is a marvellous boost for the company and a great endorsement of our gluten-free range in particular. We've seen significant growth in demand for our gluten=free range over the past few years especially in Britain.

"The OCADO listing gives us an important foothold in England, a market we've targeted for growth. We will be supplying products to both OCADO depots and seeking to build on this tremendous business opportunity."

The OCADO listing follows extensive discussions with the online retailer over many months.

The gluten-free sausage was introduced by the company to meet a growing market demand especially from consumers with coeliac disease, a common bowel condition. The sausages are also sold in Northern Ireland and in a range of independents and butchery businesses throughout Ireland. The gluten-free burger product is a more recent development. Doherty's recently secured its first business in Spain.

The family-owned and managed company has a heritage in quality meat processing stretching back over 150 years and six generations and is widely acknowledged throughout Ireland as one of the leading processors.

James Doherty opened his butcher's shop in Derry in 1830. The business was continued by his son and grandson and by 1945 comprised a small retail chain owned by Thomas J Doherty. In that year our current chairman, James Doherty joined his father in the business and began a process of expansion and development into processed beef and pork products.

McQuaid adds: "The rise in sales is immensely encouraging and justifies our decision to invest in the development and marketing of the sausages. Gluten-free sausages are now among our most successful and fastest growing lines. We decided to develop the sausages in response to requests from customers with the condition.

"Around one in a hundred people throughout the UK and Ireland suffer from the condition so there was clearly a gap in the market for our longstanding expertise in meat processing."

The company's sausages in particular are already listed by Asda, Sainsbury's and Tesco in Northern Ireland. Doherty's has BRC Grade A accreditation and operates from a modern HACCP approved processing plant.