Article appeared in issue 1, 2023

Ashbourne Meat Processors

Ashbourne Meat Processors is a privately owned company that supplies high-quality beef to domestic and worldwide markets. It operates its own slaughterhouse, cutting plants and modern processing facilities in Ireland, under the strictest quality control and management supervision. Ashbourne Meat Processors holds higher level European Food Safety Inspection Service (EFSIS)-approved ISO 9001 status. It also has modern processing and cold-store facilities. The company offers full traceability from farm to fork and is a member of the Bord Bia Quality Assurance Scheme. This is coupled with a commitment to service, which, the company says, gives it an edge in a competitive marketplace. Annually, Ireland produces close to 500,000 tonnes of beef, with 450,000 tonnes exported across the globe. Ashbourne Meats operates modern processing, storage and handling facilities. According to the company, traditional methods of animal husbandry and Ireland's mild climate, fine grasses and expert processing, as well as the company’s strong focus on quality, mean you can taste the difference in its products. The company’s sales team has built trusted and lasting partnerships with distributors in Europe and beyond. Ashbourne Meat Processors is committed to sustainability and is a verified member of Bord Bia's Origin Green sustainability programme.

Dairygold

Dairygold Food Ingredients, a division of Dairygold Co-Operative Society, is located in the south of Ireland. Its award-winning milk powders and cheese products, marketed under the Glenor brand, are manufactured from milk wholly sourced from its own milk-supplier shareholders located across the region, and utilising predominantly grass-fed milk-production systems. Dairygold’s vision is to be a leading, global, farmer-owned co-operative, supplying industry-leading nutritional products from its manufacturing facilities, including the recently expanded Nutritionals campus in Mallow, Co. Cork. With a commitment to sustainable growth, both on farm and across its facilities, Dairygold’s strategy will see ongoing investment to support the increased global demand for dairy nutritional products.

Future Nutrition

Future Nutrition is a private-label formulation, development, and manufacturing partner that develops the best tasting functional beverages and ready-to-mix powders. The company is an expert in four markets: sports nutrition; active nutrition; health and wellness; and gaming. Future Nutrition’s facility is WADA- and IOC-banned substance-free, and is accredited by Informed Sport, and ISO 22000:2018. It is also a member of ESSNA and Ireland’s food and drink sustainability programme, Origin Green. Future Nutrition is a family business, spanning four generations and prides itself on product quality, innovation and service. Established in 2010, Future Nutrition is located on the same original site as its sister company, Donohoe Drinks, that has developed, manufactured and bottled spirits, beers and soft drinks since 1876. Future Nutrition has grown from a fast-paced start-up to a global functional beverage and powder manufacturer, working with some of the largest consumer functional beverage brands across the globe. Its trademark agility allows it to work with small, medium and large clients.

Glenstal Foods

Based in the heart of the Golden Vale in Ireland, Glenstal Foods is a leading, independent, dairy-trading company with significant presence in the foodservice and retail sectors. Its product range includes cheese, butter, and milk powders. Glenstal Foods has established relationships worldwide with many multinationals in the retail, foodservice, and manufacturing sectors. The company has been exporting to the Gulf region since 2008 and is well equipped to meet the unique demands of the region’s marketplace.

Glenstal Foods offers a one-stop-shop for your dairy ingredients, retail and foodservice dairy products, and specialises in the sourcing, sales and marketing of quality dairy products and ingredients. The company sources its dairy products from accredited factories to ensure that it offers the highest-quality products to its customers around the world. Its skilled team are well placed to source and supply the required products to your specifications on time and in time. This approach has enabled Glenstal Foods to establish strong relationships and key partnerships with many multinational companies specialising in key sectors of the Irish dairy food industry.

Glenstal Foods will be showcasing its range of aged Irish cheddars in a variety of pack formats, Irish flavoured cheddar range, Irish creamery butter in unique packaging, and a large range of milk powders.

Lakeland Dairies

Lakeland Dairies is a leading dairy processor on the island of Ireland, processing over two billion litres of high-quality milk, annually, collected from 3,200 family farms. The co-operative exports an extensive range of dairy foodservice, consumer products, and food-ingredient products to blue-chip customers in over 80 countries, worldwide. Lakeland Dairies’ Foodservice and Consumer Division is a sophisticated dairy operation with automated, modern, production technologies. Lakeland offers highly appealing, value-added dairy products for use in food preparation and direct use by clients’ consumers throughout the international foodservice industry. Lakeland Dairies’ Food Ingredients Division extracts the constituents of freshly assembled milk to offer a comprehensive portfolio of highly functional food ingredients with fine, free flowing milk powders, proteins and liquid dairy fats of an exceptionally high quality and consistency. Through the co-operative work of generations of dairy farmers, Lakeland Dairies has created a strong and resilient business with excellent operations supplying a comprehensive portfolio of 240 different dairy foodservice, consumer and food ingredient products. The co-operative continues to meet growing global demand with industry leading expertise in long-life UHT creams, milk sticks, award winning flavoured milks, ice creams, butterfats, powders, caseins, lactose and whey. Lakeland Dairies has a continuously strong focus on the development and evolution of its technical capabilities through ongoing investment in new technologies and facilities.

Marbaana

Marbaana is Ireland’s largest Halal certified secondary poultry processor. The company offers award-winning, retailer and own-branded products in Ireland, the UK and Northern Ireland, Europe and the Middle East. This family business, based in the southeast of Ireland is built on foundations of strong family values with a business ethos of trust and honesty. Marbaana specialises in premium Halal-approved turkey and chicken solutions for the retail sector. The company is passionate about sustainability and animal welfare; its raw material used is produced to the highest European standards with bird welfare at the forefront throughout the supply chain. The company’s standalone state-of-the-art poultry facility is Halal approved and has a BRC AA rating.

Marbaana is a verified member of the world’s first national sustainability programme, Origin Green. This programme guarantees certified sustainable production methods, responsible raw-material sourcing, packaging recyclability, reducing energy consumption, improving manufacturing processes, employee welfare and social sustainability initiatives.

Marbaana’s production agility and NPD capabilities have pushed innovation boundaries and result in the development of creative meal and product concepts that give consumers a new and unique experience. With a diverse product portfolio made using quality ingredients, Marbaana has a proven capability to succeed in the global Halal market. It has an established distribution network that enables it to service retailers in the Gulf on a weekly basis.

Musgrave Ireland

Musgrave is Ireland’s leading food retail, wholesale and foodservice company. From a small grocery store founded by two brothers in 1876, Musgrave now feeds one in three people in Ireland every day. It supports more than 41,000 jobs in 1,400 stores, warehouses, and offices. The company’s brands include SuperValu, Centra, Daybreak, Donnybrook Fair, MarketPlace, La Rousse Foods, Frank and Honest, and Drinks Inc. across the island of Ireland. In Spain, it operates Dialprix supermarkets and Dialsur cash and carry, while customers across the UK, Europe, and the UAE stock its quality and award-winning products. Its international export offering includes over 14,000 own-brand product lines for grocery and wholesale, from high quality fresh, chilled and frozen foods to dried food and catering equipment. Its grocery range boasts a collection of food awards, including 100 from the Great Taste Awards 2021, and 49 awards for its Signature Tastes range, making it Ireland’s number one premium range. Musgrave has several successful supply partnerships for its SuperValu range across Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Musgrave is one of Europe’s most successful family-owned businesses with a 146-year heritage in food-and-brand innovation. Musgrave was the first food retail and wholesale group to become a verified member of Origin Green, the world's only national food and drink sustainability programme, and the first company in Ireland to embed the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals into its sustainability strategy. The company supports hundreds of family businesses and local entrepreneurs through its supply chain and franchises. More than 1,800 local food producers and suppliers are supported by SuperValu.

Oliver Carty & Family

The Oliver Carty story began almost three quarters of a century ago. At the family home in Co. Roscommon, Ireland, Oliver Carty started a business and what the family refer to as 'The Carty Way' was born. Now, as then, it’s a way of doing things that embraces time-honoured traditions that puts innovation, imagination, and a passion for quality at the heart of everything the company does.

Oliver Carty & Family takes pride in its products and meticulously tends to every detail at every step of the manufacturing process. The company has a broad range of products and packaging options, and the capability and capacity to process turkey and other proteins. Its expertise can cater for large-scale contract manufacturing business, private label, foodservice solutions and bespoke premium products.

The Oliver Carty & Family range of turkey medallions and lardons are 100% Halal certified. The company has its own smoke house, using only natural woods like beech, oak, and cherrywood, and its products are cured using Irish Atlantic Sea salt harvested on the Beara Peninsula in west Cork.

Oliver Carty & Family's beechwood-smoked turkey medallions are traditionally cured and full of flavour. They are high in protein, low in fat, and each medallion is only 28 calories. "The Carty Way helps us deliver on our promise that you’ll taste the Carty cure in products that are uniquely flavoursome as they are quality assured," a spokesperson said.

Ornua

Ornua is a dairy co-operative that markets and sells dairy products on behalf of its members, Ireland’s dairy processors and, in turn, Irish dairy farmers. Ornua is Ireland’s largest exporter of Irish dairy products, exporting to 110 countries worldwide. It has annualised sales of over €2.5bn and a global team of 2,900 employees, and has sales and marketing teams working in-market across all four corners of the globe. Ornua’s core purpose is to build profitable routes to market for Irish dairy products. The group is structured across two divisions: Ornua Foods and Ornua Ingredients.

Ornua Foods is responsible for the marketing and sales of Ornua’s consumer brands including Kerrygold, Kerrygold Dubliner, Pilgrims Choice, Forto and BEO milk powders. Markets are served by production facilities and in-market sales and marketing teams in Africa, Asia, Germany, Ireland, the UK, the rest of Europe, the Middle East, and the US. In 2019, Kerrygold became the first Irish food brand to exceed €1bn annual retail value. Its phenomenal global success is attributed to farming families’ commitment and dedication to making the best quality milk in the world, coupled with state-of-the-art member production facilities and an ambitious and focussed brand strategy. Ornua Ingredients is responsible for the procurement of Irish and non-Irish dairy products, for the sale of dairy ingredients to food manufacturing and foodservice customers across the world, and for managing volatility through de-risking and trading strategies. The business is supported by production facilities in Saudi Arabia, Spain, the UK, the US and by in-market teams in Africa and the Middle East.

Silver Hill Duck

Founded in 1962, Silver Hill Duck is a fully integrated premium duck producer. All aspects of the company’s duck production are owned and controlled by Silver Hill Duck, from breeding, egg production, hatching and selection, to processing, cooking and packaging. Its distinctive hybrid duck is the secret to its success and is a breed that is exclusive to Silver Hill Duck. It has been continually developed over the years, to produce a duck that is full of flavour, succulent, tender and consistent in its quality. Silver Hill Duck has achieved tremendous success in recent years, in both domestic and overseas markets. At 70% export led, Silver Hill Duck currently supplies duck and duck products to 24 countries worldwide, including the UK, Holland, Germany, the UAE, Singapore and Hong Kong. Marked success has already been achieved among Asian customers due to the superior roasting qualities of the Silver Hill Duck. It is the proud supplier of head-on duck to the very best Chinese and Asian restaurants in Ireland and the UK for almost 40 years. It already commands a premium price in Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau where chefs have christened Silver Hill’s unique breed of duck, the 'mother of all duck'. Currently the company exports 5,000 ducks per week across more than 300 high-end restaurants in Asia, with additional sales enquiries coming in from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and mainland China, based on this success.

Tipperary Co-op

Tipperary Co-operative is a world-class, innovative dairy-ingredient manufacturer for the infant-formula and food-ingredient sector, globally. Its products include butter, Emmental cheese, skim-milk powder, buttermilk powder, whole-milk powder, fat-filled-milk powder, sweet-whey powder as well as specialised fortified dairy and plant-based nutritional and medical supplements. Tipperary Co-operative has invested in state-of-the-art product formulation, milk evaporation and spray drying facilities. The site is one of the most modern dairy-ingredient facilities in Europe. It is by employing the most efficient processing technologies and working closely with farmers and customers that Tipperary Co-operative can ensure the long-term sustainability of the dairy-food sector. The co-operative’s farmers have also invested extensively in creating long-term sustainability on their farms and Tipperary Co-operative supports them to continuously improve milk-production methods and sustainability. Support programmes from the research farm owned by Tipperary Co-operative shareholders in conjunction with Teagasc, Ireland’s national advisory body, are fundamental to the future sustainability of our supply base. With its new formulation facility, Tipperary’s research-and-development team, in co-operation with its customers, is focused on the development of healthy, natural, clean-labelled products that exceed expectations and improve the health and wellbeing of all consumers. Tipperary Co-operative lives a four-pillar approach that drives this innovation. These pillars include:

1) Gut and metabolic health;

2) Immunity and wellbeing;

3) Bone and muscle maintenance/development; and

4) Cognitive support/development.

Tirlán

Tirlán is a world-class food and nutrition co-operative, with a diverse portfolio of quality ingredients, leading consumer and agri brands. The farmer-owned co-operative has a first-class track record of success in the global market. Rooted in a rich heritage of family farming and embedded in its communities, Tirlán has evolved to bring the passion of its farmers and their high-quality milk and grains to the international marketplace. Using modern-day technology and applying the best processes to its milk pool of three billion litres and its premium grains portfolio, Tirlán now exports to more than 100 countries. Its award-winning brands are household names in Ireland, and include Ireland’s number-one consumer dairy brand, Avonmore. The organisation draws on a wealth of experience to deliver exceptional products and tailored nutritional solutions including Kilmeaden, Wexford, Truly Grass Fed, Solmiko, CheddMax and Gain Animal Nutrition. Tirlán has a strong market presence in the UK, France, Germany, Middle East, the US, North Africa, Japan and China. Avonmore produces a range of premium dairy products to cater for a wide variety of consumer and food service needs. Its international product range includes cheese, butter, UHT milk and UHT cream. A talented team of over 2,100 people manage Tirlán’s network of 11 production facilities. Tirlán is committed to sustainability through its comprehensive Living Proof programme.

William’s Gate

William’s Gate is one of Galway’s largest export-approved food companies. Its state-of-the-art facility in Galway employs a number of specialists, including dozens of highly skilled butchers. Meat is the company’s passion, not only cutting and preparing meat, but also exploring how to cook it and how to get the best from it for customers. The company has a dedicated training area on-site to up-skill all staff as well as a professional kitchen and restaurant. This unique environment encourages discussion and innovation. The company says it has made these investments because it understands that the strength of its business comes, not from bricks and mortar or machinery, but from people and their passion for food. William’s Gate offers full retail MAP packing capabilities along with state-of-the-art skin packing, thermoforming, and burger forming preparations. It has several own brands and several tertiary brands that can be used globally. For example, 1908 is its dry-aged beef brand. Managing director Alan Morris is one of the world’s foremost authorities on dry ageing beef.