Tyrone food company expands after securing Tesco listing
A Co Tyrone food company has undertaken an expansion project after securing a significant new listing with Tesco.
Cloughbane Farm Shop, based outside Pomeroy, has just extended its cook room to enable it to produce more ready meal dinners.
The expansion comes after Cloughbane secured a listing with Tesco Northern Ireland for a raft of new products. The products are roast chicken, roast beef, turkey and ham and roast gammon ready meal dinners along with lasagne plus individual and family chicken and broccoli bakes and cottage pies.
The company’s Managing Director, Lorna Robinson, explained: “The extension to the cook room facilities has increased the overall size of our main factory building by more than 30%. This extension was built solely for ready meal dinners which are available within Tesco NI stores.”
Cloughbane, which won five UK Great Taste Awards this year, handcrafts all its products – and it uses the finest local ingredients. All meat is sourced within a 50-mile radius of the company’s farm, and pork and poultry products are UK or Irish farmed.
The company, which employs 40 and has been in business for 11 years, first started to supply Tesco in Northern Ireland back in December 2012. The leading retailer initially stocked four of its products, but now the product count has grown to 11.
Lorna Robinson said: “This listing has significantly increased our business with Tesco and we will continue to work closely with the excellent Tesco buying team to give the customer what they want.”
The deal with Tesco has also prompted a rebrand of Cloughbane’s products and in addition the new products are available in cartons after the company purchased a cartoning machine as part of the expansion project.
The MD added: “This is the first major rebrand the company has undertaken for a number of years and we are extremely pleased to be launching it within Tesco in Northern Ireland.”
Richard Robinson, who runs the business with his mum Lorna, created the new branding, which reflects his passion for his farming roots and a flair for design.
“The packaging clearly shows the products are made on the farm with much care. Our customers are already telling us they love the bold red colour on the packaging which makes it stand out from the crowd,” he explained.
Sandra Weir from Tesco NI said: “Cloughbane’s products are simply superb and our customers love them. The feedback on the new products has been excellent.”
Tesco spends nearly £600million on Northern Ireland products each year, it has more than 90 local suppliers and it stocks more than 1,200 local products.
