Creamery's contract with Asian retailer

Published 1 Feb 2012 14:34

Fivemiletown Creamery has won business from one of Asia's biggest retail operations.

The artisan creamery is to supply a range of handcrafted and award winning soft cheeses, including its unique Boilie Irish goats' cheese, and creamy cheddars to Dairy Farm International Holdings, headquartered in Hong Kong.

Dairy Farm operates major supermarkets in Hong Kong, including the Wellcome chain, the region's biggest retailer, as well as in Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Owen Jones, Fivemiletown Creamery's business development manager, describes the contract, secured through a leading distributor, as "a huge boost for the creamery in one of the most dynamic international markets".

Mr Jones said: "The contract with Dairy Farm gives us a marvellous springboard for growth in a marketplace which has a rapidly growing and affluent middle class increasingly seeking new taste experiences. China, for instance, already has 960,000 sterling millionaires.

"The nation also has 90 cities each with a middle class of more than a quarter of a million, representing a huge market opportunity for western luxury products including premium cheese.

"We have been supplying oak smoked cheddar sticks to another retail operation in Hong Kong for several years and have been working to develop contacts to strengthen business there especially for our soft bries and Boilie cheeses. Achieving Red Tractor status has become an important selling point for us because it demonstrates consistent quality throughout our operation, from farm to retailer.

"As a result of our developing focus on exports, we are now selling our soft cheeses in 15 global markets including Hong Kong. Our achievements in these markets brings tangible benefits to the Tyrone and Fermanagh communities in terms of the best prices for high protein milk to our farmers and additional employment opportunities.

"Our rapidly growing success in markets outside Northern Ireland is helping to strengthen employment prospects in Tyrone," he adds.

Fivemiletown Creamery is a farmers' co-operative which sources high protein milk for its soft cheese products from almost 70 dairy farmers in Tyrone's Clogher Valley and other regions of Northern Ireland. The company, founded in 1898, currently employs 88 people and sells around 90 per cent of its soft cheeses outside Northern Ireland.

Regular customers include major retailers including Sainsbury's, ASDA, Tesco, Harrods and Harvey Nichols, Walmart and Dean and Deluca in the US, and Galeries Lafayette in France. In addition, the creamery supplies products to around 4,000 delis and farm shops in Britain.

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