Glastry Farm Ice Cream wins Aldi business
Glastry Farm Ice Cream, Northern Ireland’s producer of luxury ice cream and sorbets, has won business with German discounter Aldi in Ireland.
The contract is Glastry’s first with Aldi and will see three flavours of the Northern Ireland farm-based producer’s ice cream on sale in Aldi stores in the Republic of Ireland. The flavours, available in 500ml tubs for Aldi, are lemon meringue, yellowman honeycomb and chocolate and salted caramel.
Dairy farmer Will Taylor, who established the business in 2007, commenting on the deal with Aldi, says: “We are thrilled to receive this order, our first from a major supermarket chain, following a pitch for business from the retailer. Earlier in the year, Aldi invited smaller food producers throughout Ireland to bid for business.
“The retailer was interested in expanding its supplier chain, especially smaller producers. We applied and submitted samples which the buyers liked and subsequently placed an order for three of our flavours.
“Aldi has a great reputation in Ireland as an excellent customer to work with. We look forward to building our business relationship with Aldi. We pride ourselves on providing excellent customer service which should help us develop further this immensely important business,” adds Mr Taylor.
Aldi currently has around 130 stores exclusively in the Republic of Ireland and has a strong commitment to suppliiers from across the island.
The ice cream and sorbets are produced exclusively from the family’s pedigree Holstein dairy herd that’s grass-fed on the farm, near the shores of the picturesque Strangford Lough, a conservation area.
In addition to its new business witjh Aldi, Glastry is also supplying ice cream to retailers in the United Arab Emirates.
“We have total control over our primary ingredient,” Mr Taylor continues. “This means our products have total transparency and provenance,” he adds.
Mr Taylor has successfully diversified the family dairy farm into an award-winning producer of luxury ice cream and sorbets for both retail and especially foodservice operations including major hotels and restaurants. He has collected a host of awards from bodies such as the UK Guild of Fine Food and Blas na hEireann, the Irish National Food Awards.
In addition to its awards, Glastry was named in the World Opportunity Programme run by Heathrow International Airport which gave the company access to a funding and support package designed to encourage smaller UK exporters.
