New ready cook range for Tesco NI from Ann’s Kitchen

County Down based chilled and frozen food producer, TS Foods has secured a contract to supply a range of ready cook products to Tesco Northern Ireland stores under its Ann’s Kitchen brand.

The award-winning family run company will provide a range of convenient, chilled, ready to cook chicken meals in a deal worth up to £650,000 retail.

The products include favourites such as Hunters Chicken, Chicken with Bacon, Leeks and Cheese, Chicken Mini Roasts, Piri Piri Chicken and Sweet Chilli Chicken.

Each product serves two, and comes in an oven-ready foil tray and will retail at £3.75.  The products partner perfectly with a wide range of sides and accompaniments, offering consumers a fantastic 'easy-meal' proposition.  The range offers complete convenience, choice and quality.

The products will be marketed under the Ann’s Kitchen brand, which was inspired by the culinary passion of Ann Steele, one half of the duo that established TS Foods in Castlewellan. County Down in 1978.

The company is now under the management of the second generation of the Steele family - daughter Joanne Molloy, managing director, and son David Steele, operations director.

Speaking about the new products, Joanne Molloy said: “We have a strong relationship with Tesco that goes back over twenty years, so when we were approached to create these products, we were delighted to do so.”

“We have worked hard to ensure the products quality, taste and flavour matches the Tesco consumers needs.” 

Sandra Weir, fresh food buying manager Tesco NI added: “Working with TS Foods and the Steele family for a number of decades now, we knew we could approach them as a trusted partner to create this range.

There’s an increasing demand from our customers for products that offer ease and convenience and to be able to offer a top quality, good value range from a local company is fantastic. We are certain that our consumers are going to love these products.”

TS Foods currently employs over 100 people and provides retailers with branded and own-label products including TS Foods Chicken, Tony’s Chippy and TS Foods Stuffing. They also have a strong food service offering, including an extensive range of hot-deli and catering items.

The individual product descriptions are as follows:

Hunters Chicken Breast Fillets wrapped in Smokey Bacon with Cheddar Cheese and a BBQ sauce.

Chicken Breast Fillets with Bacon, Leeks & Cheese, with a rich and creamy cheese sauce. Chicken Mini Roasts, chicken breast fillets wrapped in smoked bacon with sage & onion stuffing balls, pork chipolata sausages and chicken gravy.

Piri Piri Chicken Breast Fillets sprinkled with a Piri Piri seasoning and finished with a Piri Piri sauce.

Sweet Chilli Chicken Breast Fillets sprinkled with a sweet chilli seasoning and finished with a sweet chilli sauce.

Joanne Molloy, managing director, TS Foods, Stephen McNeice, account manager, TS Foods,  and Sandra Weir, fresh food buying manager Tesco NI celebrate the launch of five new chilled chicken products into Tesco stores across Northern Ireland.