SLR has teamed up with the Scottish Retail Food and Drinks Awards and Invest Northern Ireland to bring Scotland’s local retailers the best products that Northern Ireland has to offer.
In an increasingly competitive marketplace, it’s important you make your store stand out from the crowd. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is by offering your customers products that your competitors don’t, and one source for new products is closer to Scotland than you think.
With only 12 miles of separation at the closest point, Northern Ireland is practically within touching distance for Scottish local retailers and what’s more, it hosts a number of suppliers – many award-winning – who are keen to get their products on your shelves.
With that in mind, SLR has partnered with the Scottish Retail Food and Drink Awards and Northern Ireland’s economic development agency, Invest NI, to help Scotland’s retailers grow and differentiate their ranges.
We’ll be working with major retailers, symbol groups and independent chains to introduce them to high quality, retail-ready products that are likely to appeal to Scottish consumers.
Here’s a small selection of suppliers and their products to whet your appetite…
Hinch Distillery
Hinch Peated Single Malt
Hinch is a grain to glass distillery in County Down that has been custom built to produce a very particular style of Irish Single Malt Whiskey, using water from the Mourne Mountains and traditional Irish mashing processes. Its mash house contains not one but two mashing vessels, allowing the distillery to maximise its flavour profiles.
Hinch Irish Whiskey Peated Single Malt is one of Ireland’s only Peated Single Malts, triple-distilled in the classic Irish Whiskey style. It has won multiple awards across the globe for excellence in its bold spirit.
A ppm of 55 gives it a wonderful earthy and smoky nose with the peat on the pallet warming and lingering with no sense of the 43% ABV.
Website: www.hinchdistillery.com
Email: michael.morris@hinchdistillery.com
Big Pot
Sweet Potato Red Lentil & Spinach
SRFDA finalist, Great taste 2020 winner
Alison and her team have been making delicious soups and meals in the heart of Co. Tyrone for over 10 years. Big Pot’s products use both traditional and on-trend flavours – all of which are made by hand in small batches to ensure consistency and great taste, time after time.
The Great Taste Award-winning Meal Pot is made using only fresh and natural ingredients, and is perfect on its own or with a side of rice, quinoa or couscous for a more substantial meal.
The warming vegan-friendly pot of dhal contains chunks of sweet potato, topped with spinach, spiced with chilli, garlic, ginger, cumin & turmeric.
Website: www.bigpotco.com
Email: malcolm@bigpotco.com
Davison’s
Davison’s Sticky Toffee Pudding
Over 40 years ago, the Davison family grew and harvested its very first crop of Irish Bramley apples. Four decades on, the family firm now boasts over 120 acres of orchards and brand-new grade AA BRC-accredited factory facilities on site.
While its roots are in apple growing and processing, over the last four decades the business has branched out to meet the changing needs of its customers and diversified to stay ahead of food trends.
Davison’s is now one of the UK’s leading producers of speciality fruit, fruit compotes, jams and bakery fillings, responsible for such delights as this irresistibly moist and rich buttery sponge with dates, smothered in a deliciously sweet and sticky toffee sauce.
Website: davisoncanners.com
Email: claire@davisons-puds.com
Genesis
Jam Bakes
For Genesis, baking is the perfect mix of creativity and science. It uses only the finest quality ingredients, combined with care and attention and then baked in precisely the right heat for exactly the right time.
Genesis is a craft bakery, which means that it still has bakers kneading, rolling and piping by hand, creating fabulous treats everyone loves to eat.
The business also makes a lot of delicacies for retailers such as Waitrose and Marks & Spencer, which are then sold all over the world.
One of the bakery’s stand-out products is its Jam Bakes 4-pack, which boasts a buttery pastry base, with raspberry jam filling and a rich, moist sponge.
Website: www.genesisbakery.co.uk
Email: sales@genesisbakery.co.uk
Glens of Antrim
Shindigs
Originating in the heart of the Glens of Antrim, on the side of Lurigethan Mountain, Glens of Antrim has been packing potatoes since 1972 in the picturesque landscape of the glens, overlooking the Irish sea.
It has spent years refining its award-winning flavours and perfecting its packaging to ensure that its Shindigs hand-cooked crisps are fresh, vibrant and bursting with great flavour.
A shindig is renowned all over the world as a great party. Our party box style packaging is eye-catching and offers customers something different for sharing and helps create a great shindig.
For more information contact info@weareshindigs.com or call Amy on 07703594541.
Website: www.weareshindigs.com
Email: info@weareshindigs.com
Hellbent
Chakalaka Boerewors
SRFDA winner
Hellbent’s coiled sausages, burgers and meatballs are made to a 100-year-old South African recipe from Irish beef for a unique taste that can’t be found anywhere else. All products are high in protein and contain no added gluten or rusk.
Boerewors is a sausage made from premium-quality ground beef and seasoned with a hint of nutmeg, coriander, black pepper, cloves, allspice and cinnamon. Chakalaka is a spicy vegetable relish traditionally served warm or cold with bread, pap, stews or curries. Hellbent has created a fusion of these two iconic South African staples to offer “the most delicious sausage you may ever have tasted”.
Website: www.wearehellbent.co.uk
Email: louis@wearehellbent.co.uk
McAtamney’s
Salt & Sizzle Steaks
In 2003 K&G McAtamney Wholesale Meats opened a purpose built 18,000sq ft meat processing plant to prepare, package and distribute a wide range of meat and fresh produce. It supplies quality meat products to over 350 of Northern Irelands leading hotels and restaurants and prepacked meats to supermarkets throughout the UK.
McAtamney’s aims to create great produce from quality hand selected beef, pork, lamb and poultry. It continually develops innovative new products on a regular basis to meet with the ever-changing demands of its customers.
Take its Salt & Chilli Sizzle Steaks, for example. These offer locally produced hand selected beef sliced into lean steak strips then coated in a salt & chilli crumb.
Website: kgmcatamney.com
Email: alvin@kgmcatamney.com
McColgan’s
McColgan’s Quiche
SRFDA winner
The McColgan family began serving food in Strabane from a tea shop in 1940. A café, butcher and bakery followed. Production of the company’s sausage rolls started in 1978. These proved so popular that new premises had to be built to keep up with demand, and today McColgan’s ships all manner of savoury pastries from a state-of-the-art facility, fewer than two miles from the original tea shop.
This award-winning McColgan’s Quiche is made with Shortcrust pastry filled with goat’s cheese and caramelised red onion, in a creamy egg filling with a goat’s cheese disc placed centred on top.
Website: www.mccolgans.ie
Email: Stephen@mccolgans.ie
PrepHouse
Prephouse Whiskey Sauce
Great taste 2020 winner
PrepHouse is a family business based in Crossgar, County Down. It has been producing restaurant quality sauces for well over a decade, supplying many well-known hospitality chains across Ireland.
With a strong base in foodservice stretching back over 20 years, it turned its attention to supplying the retail sector. Since then, it has extended its range to include dressings and dips, picking up Great Taste and Blas awards along the way.
One of several sauces PrepHouse is known for, its Whiskey Sauce is a Great Taste Award-winning moreish, full-bodied gluten-free sauce brewed with real Irish whiskey.
Email: www.prephouse.co.uk
Website: david.dougan@prephouse.co.uk
Thompson’s Tea
Thompson’s Scottish Blend
SRFDA winner
Founded in 1896, this family-run business is now managed by a fourth generation of Thompsons.
Ross and David Thompson’s grandfather, James, frequently visited Scotland. He fell in love with the beautiful landscapes, wonderful wildlife, and the welcoming, down-to-earth people.
It was his love of these trips, with so many happy memories that inspired him to create Thompson’s Scottish Blend, perfect for Scotland’s softer water, fed by its abundant lakes and reservoirs.
Specially selected teas from the foothills of Mount Kenya have been perfectly partnered with North India’s finest growth to produce an award-winning tea with a rich and satisfying flavour. The perfect cup of tea at any time of the day.
Email: www.thompsonstea.com
Website: james@punjana.com
Wilson’s Country
You Say Potato Fresh Cut Chips
SRFDA winner
Since Angus Wilson launched Wilson’s Country from his family farm in the 1980s it has grown from strength to strength. The business now employs over 70 staff who work from a six acre site in County Armagh. Investment in Wilson’s premises, staff and growers ensures a quality product and excellent service.
Prepared from specially selected chipping varieties Wilson’s freshly-cut chips are a convenient, tastier, fresh alternative to frozen that are performing well beyond expectation in all retailers who currently stock. They are also extremely popular with Slimming World members for cooking in ActiFryers and are available in 500g (two portion) or 1kg (four portion) packs.
Email: www.wilsonscountry.com
Website: joanne.weir@wilsonscountry.com
