sausages - Neighbourhood Retailer

Poundland to roll out fresh meat and fish range

Linda Stewart — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 13:47:51 +0000

Poundland has partnered with DTS Food to launch its first range of fresh meat and fish lines.

The new range of 11 items – branded ‘cookit’ – is being rolled into hundreds of stores over the next three weeks, providing “an alternative to supermarkets”.

Cookit complements Poundland’s recent expansion into chilled and frozen foods, which will be in around 350 stores by the autumn, and fresh fruit and vegetables with the full range now in over 60 stores.

The discount retailer’s initial cookit range includes ribs, steaks, bacon, sausages, mince, salmon and cod fillets.

Poundland said the new range had been selected to offer shoppers a blend of quality meat and fish at amazing value to help them make low-cost meals to offset the impact of higher inflation on food prices.

Commercial Director Tim Bettley said: “Whether clothing, frozen food or homewares, over the past few years we’ve been significantly extending up what we offer our customers so they can find much more of their weekly shop in their local Poundland.

“At the heart of that transformation is great products, and we know customers are going to love our new cookit range – it gives them quality meat and fish at the amazing value we’re famous for.

“We’re proud to be the first retailer to carry the range.”

Nick Preston, CEO of Nottingham-based DTS Food, added: “We’ve worked with Poundland for the last six months to understand what they are looking for from a supplier point of view and importantly what they want to offer their customers in terms of quality.

“As a business we have significant experience in the food industry. We understand the importance, more so than ever given the current economic climate, of giving consumers good quality products at the right price. Cookit will offer them just that.

“We’re already looking at extending the cookit range beyond this initial range of meats and seafood.”

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Mooneys Butchers set to top 5K healthy meals this January

Linda Stewart — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 16:44:37 +0000

Mooneys Butchers in Belfast is preparing to cook more than 5,000 healthy meals this January.

The Belfast butcher was flat out ahead of the festive season putting together Christmas meat packages, but finds he is just as busy in the New Year as his customers’ healthy eating resolutions kick in.

Mooneys has long been famed for its sausages , with customers coming to the Shankill Road and Woodstock Road shops from all over the city for them, but owner Stephen Mooney estimates that healthy meals now make up around 50% of his trade.

“Over the years we used to have a big sausage trade. We would have run competitions and also made our own pies,” Stephen says.

“Then people were getting more into healthy eating, so about five years ago I started preparing healthy calorie-controlled meals.

“So then I converted the first and second floors into two full working kitchens, with cooking and preparation areas – we extended up rather than out because we can’t go anywhere else. Healthy ready meals would be 50% of our business now.”

The healthy ready meals range from chicken curry with steamed rice and steamed chicken in curry sauce, to potato based meals, noodle meals, potato wedges, pasta dishes and roast chicken and beef – all home cooked.

“In January we will usually top about 5,000 meals a week – we go through the roof when January kicks in,” Stephen says.

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Finnebrogue warns of food production standstill if Covid 7-day isolation rules continue

Linda Stewart — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 09:55:02 +0000

A leading figure at Co Down food company Finnebrogue Artisan has warned that production lines could grind to a halt if the requirement of seven-day isolation for Covid-19 cases continues.

Jago Pearson, chief strategy officer at the Downpatrick-based business, has called on the Government to reduce the period to five days.

“For food production, the largest manufacturing sector in Britain, mass quarantining of healthy workers threatens to grind production lines to a halt,” said Mr Pearson, writing in the Belfast Telegraph.

The company employs 1,200 people in the manufacture of sausages, bacon and plant-based products. It is a major supplier to UK supermarkets.

Mr Pearson said: “We currently have up to 5% absence attributable to Covid, but are concerned this will rise in coming weeks without action on isolation rules.

“Anything over 10% will put our production lines under significant pressure.”

New rules have cut the previous requirement for a 10-day self-isolation period to seven days, provided a patient can provide negative lateral flow results on day six and day seven, but Prime Minister Boris Johnston has said he would consider cutting the isolation period if it could be shown not to increase infection.

Mr Pearson said that the policy of seven-day isolation was “putting the NHS under almost intolerable strain”.

“Iceland boss Richard Walker has called for isolation to be cut to five days. His call will be echoed by the whole food industry,” he said.

“We have done so much to keep our staff safe throughout the pandemic by implementing advanced protection and prevention measures at considerable cost.

“Their efforts to feed the nation have been extraordinary. But now we need Government to relax isolation rules — not just to save the NHS — but our essential food industry too.”

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GB food manufacturers reduce sales to NI

Linda Stewart — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 08:28:27 +0000

GB food manufacturers have significantly reduced sales to Northern Ireland as a result of the Protocol, according to a survey by the Food and Drink Federation.

The industry group surveyed 83 members between 4 and 19 October, and just under half the respondents were large businesses with more than 250 employees.

Among those, large business sales volumes to Northern Ireland were down by an average of 10% this year, while some smaller businesses reported larger drops in sales.

The FDF said that large businesses make up the majority of the volume of products sold to Northern Ireland from GB.

Across all businesses in the survey, sales to Northern Ireland were down by 13% on average.

Food products arriving into Northern Ireland from GB face a range of new checks and controls, but not all those checks are being applied due to grace periods.

The FDF survey suggests that if the grace periods ended without new arrangements then sales volumes from GB would fall further, by up to a third.

The respondents suggested that the biggest negative impact would be on raw materials and ingredients.

However, anecdotal evidence suggests that local producers in Northern Ireland have been able to increase sales to customers like supermarkets, particularly when it comes to fresh processed meat products like sausage and burgers.

A report by RTE says the volume of container and trailer traffic between Great Britain and Dublin Port was down 21.2% in the first nine months of this year, as a result of the impact of Brexit border controls since January.

Containers have also been reported as being less full than they were pre-Brexit. However, traffic to and from Continental ports increased by 36.3% in the same nine months.

Dublin Port Chief Executive, Eamon O’Reilly, said the only positive thing since Brexit is that much feared delays to traffic had not materialised.

He also said the “dislocation” of traffic ports in Northern Ireland would be a “permanent feature” and a reversal of what happened when the Single European Market came into being 30 years ago

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