Appetite for success

The new contracts span a variety of customers including international supermarket chains, food manufacturing companies and specialist frozen food retailers.

Over the last three years Bawnbua Foods has invested £2m in its business and plans to invest a further £1m throughout 2017 to support its ongoing development.

This will create an extra 25 jobs for the company which employs around 250 staff across its sites in Hindley and Co Armagh, Northern Ireland.

Company turnover has increased by around 30 per cent since 2012, with 2017 already set to be a record year.

Much of Bawnbua Foods’ success has stemmed from its strategic focus on new product development and business diversification.

This has seen it move from mainly supplying frozen meat products to the UK’s retail sector, to producing an innovative range of quality chilled ready-to-cook meats, chilled slow cooked sous-vide meats and chilled value-added meat products for supermarket chains, food manufacturers and food service customers in the UK and Europe.

Bawnbua Foods currently supplies several of Europe’s top 10 retail chains.

MD Gary White believes that the growth of Bawnbua will be accelerated by its focus on product innovation and new market development.

He said: “We are pleased to be unveiling a new chapter for the business as we continue to deliver on our customers’ requirements for convenient, great tasting, high quality meat products.

“We have been in the meat business for more than 30 years, and our focus has always been on innovation, service and quality.

“Our ongoing investment in our people and facilities has enabled us to respond to market demands and expand our portfolio to include a quality range of chilled, sous-vide and value-added meat products – which have been well received by our customers.

“This latest investment announcement follows on from a £1m-plus investment in a Product Innovation Centre and specialised production equipment at our Lurgan site in 2012, which has enabled us to become a leading supplier in the chilled meat sector.

“With plans to expand our talented product innovation team this year and new business wins already confirmed, we are excited about developing new ranges which meet and exceed our customers’ expectations, and growing the Bawnbua Foods business worldwide,” he concluded.

Bawnbua Foods was recently awarded the highest possible recognition for its food manufacturing practices by the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) Global Standard for Food Safety (Issue 7), achieving Grade A++ accreditation. It is one of the few companies to be 100 per cent compliant with the BRC’s stringent standards.