Ireland - Neighbourhood Retailer

Going Bananas – Fyffes focus on fighting food loss

Julie Nash — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 13:19:59 +0000

To mark UN International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, Fyffes has partnered with food charities across the globe to ensure that, at this time of rising prices, the most vulnerable in society continue to have access to healthy nutrition.

For 2022, Fyffes has chosen food banks and food charities as the recipients of its European and North American community investment donations. In addition to the regular donations of fresh fruits, Fyffes has donated €10,000 to FoodCloud in Ireland to ensure the organisation can maximise the use of their surplus food to support their 600 community partners.

In addition, Fyffes donated just over €5,000 each to various food charities, including Fareshare in the UK, a long-term partner of Fyffes which will be used to support their logistics and distribution.

These food donations help Fyffes achieve their sustainability commitments, which are to reduce food loss in all our own operations by 80% by 2030; and provide five millions healthy meals to vulnerable communities by 2025 by working with qualified partners.

Fyffes Sustainability Manager Stella Davis said “At Fyffes we are determined to reduce food loss and ensure the surplus reaches people who will benefit from our healthy produce.”

The post Going Bananas – Fyffes focus on fighting food loss first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

Linden Foods wins the World’s Best Grass-Fed Ribeye Steak challenge

Linda Stewart — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 10:12:27 +0000

Linden Foods in Dungannon, one of Northern Ireland’s largest processors of meats, has won the World’s Best Grass-Fed Ribeye Steak in the prestigious World Steak Challenge (WSC) in Dublin.

The endorsement by a panel of expert judges is a substantial boost for the Co Tyrone company and a significant development for grass-fed production. Linden was the most successful from the island of Ireland and was the first from Northern Ireland to win a ‘world’s best’ title in the challenging competition.

Linden won the top award for a delicious ribeye steak developed exclusively for leading UK retailer Marks and Spencer (M&S). The local ribeye came out ahead of meat processors from 20 international countries including Australia, Japan, Poland and the Republic of Ireland.

In addition, Linden won five gold awards for grass fed beef cuts including fillet and sirloin, many also produced for the hugely successful M&S Food.

Elaine Willis, Linden retail director, who works closely with M&S and other key clients on developing innovative meat products, says: “We are absolutely delighted with the win. It’s great for the team to get the recognition they deserve for their relentless work in sourcing beef of the highest quality and beating competition from across the world. Even better, this Dexter beef was reared right here in Tyrone.

“This long awaited competition puts the finest steak cuts to the test, and gives suppliers the opportunity to showcase product quality on a global stage.

“We’re so proud of our team who go above and beyond every day to ensure we’re producing the very best products we can and to have been given this prestigious award is testament to the hard work and dedication of our producers, colleagues and partnership with M&S which yielded five golds for: M&S Dexter Sirloin; M&S Dexter Ribeye; M&S Wagyu Fillet; M&S Wagyu Ribeye and M&S Wagyu Sirloin.

“Our Kettyle Irish Foods brand in Lisnaskea also took gold for Salt Dry-Age Ribeye steak. We’re proud to be representing Northern Irish quality in producing some of the very best steaks in the world.”

There were awards too for Dunbia, another Dungannon-based processor which has operations in England. ABP, which has two processing units in Northern Ireland, also featured in the awards.

Beef processors on the island of Ireland won a total of 54 medals, the most for any country involved.

The prestigious event is sponsored by the official host partner, Bord Bia, the Republic of Ireland’s hugely successful food and drink promotion body. Bord Bia, in addition, organised a farm tour to meat processors in the Republic for visitors to the high-profile event in Dublin.

The awards will also feature prominently in Bord Bia’s international marketing of meat from Ireland through initiatives such bas a chefs’ clubs, a network of which it has established in key export markets such as the Netherlands, Germany and the United Arab Emirates. The clubs meet regularly to prepare dishes using meat from the Republic.

The post Linden Foods wins the World’s Best Grass-Fed Ribeye Steak challenge first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

PRM Attends Food Force Ireland Tradeshow

Linda Stewart — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 08:43:01 +0000

PRM Group, one of Ireland’s leading suppliers of chilled food products, attended the recent Food Force Ireland Trade Show showcasing their extensive brand portfolio.

The event has become an integral part of the company’s annual programme for customer engagement and provides an excellent platform to meet with retailers and exhibit new products.

Gary Hopkins, National Account Manager, said: “We were delighted to participate in the Food Force Ireland trade show again in person this year after two years of virtual shows, and took the opportunity to showcase our PRM and Galberts brand refreshes.

“We have a number of exciting new products within our Galberts portfolio including our luxury trifles, cheesecake and salad range. We also featured our new Bol Foods range which would make a great addition to any stores chilled convenience meals and soup offering.

“In addition we featured our key range of brands available to Food Force Ireland members including Muller, Alpro, Kinder Chilled, Total, Galberts and HB Ice Cream to name but a few. We always look forward to engaging with our customers at this event and our strong ‘Deals of the Day’ always create excitement amongst Food Force Ireland members.

“At PRM Group we are committed to excellent customer service, freshness of product, delivery on time and order fulfilment. Based in Lisburn for 35 years, we pride ourselves on the strong reputation we have built in providing a price-competitive, local solution for retailers.

“Thank you to Debra Johnston and the Food Force Ireland team for organising another successful tradeshow.”

To find out more about PRM Group’s complete range of products please contact them via phone on (028) 92 620200 or email sales@prmgroup.co.uk

The post PRM Attends Food Force Ireland Tradeshow first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

Food sales decline as milk soars in price by up to 16%: Kantar

Linda Stewart — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 09:49:24 +0000

Sales of food and other essentials in Northern Ireland are declining as basics such as milk soar in price by up to 16%, a report has said.

But discount grocer Lidl has reported the slowest rate of sales decline of the main four supermarkets.

Analysis by data company Kantar found that spending in supermarkets and convenience stores fell by 3.6% in the year to September 4 as grocery price inflation hit a new high of 6.3%.

That meant the average item was up in price by 4.7% — but the scale of increase was even greater for essentials like milk and pasta, up by 16.1% and 14.4% respectively.

But senior analyst Emer Healy said the back to school rush did mean purse-strings had to be loosened, even if prices were higher.

Over the last three months, grocery sales are up 3.5% with customers making an average of 53 trips to stores over the period

As the new term was about to begin, they spent an additional £592,000 on chilled drinks, £2.5m on biscuits and £2.9m more on frozen food.

Tesco, which has around 50 stores here, remained Northern Ireland’s number one grocer, with a chunky 35.7% share of the market. And new shoppers were also flocking to its shops around Northern Ireland, adding an additional £42.7m in sales.

Sainsbury’s, Asda and Lidl complete the top four, Ms Healy said.

“Sainsbury’s holds 17.1% share with Asda just slightly behind at 16.3%, as they each saw over 10,000 more shoppers in store.

“All retailers declined compared to last year, with Lidl seeing the slowest decline at 0.7%, bringing its share of market to 7.0%. Amongst all retailers, Lidl had the biggest boost of new shoppers at 9%, spending an additional £20.9m.”

The post Food sales decline as milk soars in price by up to 16%: Kantar first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

Man avoids jail over attempted ATM theft at Ballynahinch forecourt

Linda Stewart — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 09:30:33 +0000

A County Antrim man has avoided jail over his role in the attempted theft of a cash machine from a petrol station in Ballynahinch, County Down.

The incident happened on the Belfast Road in November 2019.

Adrian Boyd, 29, of Glenville Mews, Newtownabbey, was handed a three-year prison sentence suspended for three years.

He pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting burglary and criminal damage to Carlisles’ petrol station.

Prosecutor Laura Ivers told Downpatrick Crown Court, sitting in Belfast, that at 05:00 GMT on Monday 18 November 2019, two men stole a trailer from Ballynahinch before hitching it on to a silver Volkswagen Passat car and driving it towards the town centre.

About 10 minutes later, the same car was caught on CCTV leaving a quarry with a 20-tonne stolen digger.

“The vehicles then travelled 200 yards to Carlisles’ fresh foods filling station on the Belfast Road,” Ms Ivers told Judge Geoffrey Miller KC.

“The digger was used to ram the cash machine on the forecourt.

“After 30 attempts to break free the cash machine, the offenders then used the digger to open the main doors to the shop.

“Two males entered the premises and opened a cigarette cabinet and tills.

“They took scratch cards to the value of £1,829, tobacco worth £3,777.45 and £975 in cash.”

The court heard that as the vehicles fled the scene, the digger crashed into the forecourt canopy, which collapsed and struck a passing vehicle.

The digger was abandoned at a quarry and the Passat was later reported to be on fire in the Queen’s Park area of Saintfield.

Ms Ivers told the court, that at 11:00, Boyd was observed in the passenger seat of a taxi by police officers who were conducting traffic duties at the Saintfield/Ballynahinch Road junction.

“Police made observations about his appearance and decided to search him and found 38 scratch cards on his person,” said the prosecutor.

Boyd was arrested and remained silent throughout his police interviews.

Detectives discovered the scratch cards had been issued to Carlisles’.

The court heard “extensive damage” was caused to the filling station totalling £821,295 and the loss to the business was £64,811.

Ms Ivers said Boyd was identified as the person who bought the Passat car from messages on his Facebook page.

Defence counsel Greg Berry KC said it was accepted that Boyd was not present at the time of the filling station burglary and only provided the car for the gang.

Judge Millar said Boyd was the only person to date who has been prosecuted over the burglary.

“This was a very serious burglary which is apparent from the depositions and photographs and the loss and damage caused in this criminal enterprise was huge,” the judge said.

“It was a carefully planned operation which the owner of the petrol station could do little to guard against.

“The Passat was bought as a getaway vehicle which the defendant says was his role.

“The fact that 38 scratch cards were found on his person just a matter of hours after the ram raid shows that he was closely involved in the operation.”

Judge Millar said Boyd had 33 previous convictions on his criminal record including six for burglary and two criminal damage offences.

The post Man avoids jail over attempted ATM theft at Ballynahinch forecourt first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.