Northern Ireland’s Glenarm Meat ‘Finest In The Country’
Glenarm Shorthorn meat from Northern Ireland has been described as the ‘finest fresh beef in the country’ by Fortnum and Mason chief executive Ewan Ventners.
Mr Ventners referred to the Glenarm beef, which is supplied to Fortnum and Mason, the iconic department store in London’s Piccadilly by Hannan Meats in Moira, in an article in The Grocer, the UK retail industry’s top trade magazine.
The Glenarm beef is dry-aged in Hannan’s Himalayan salt chambers, the world’s biggest. Hannan, a Food NI member company, is a longstanding supplier of meat products to Fortnum and Mason.
Mr Ventners, commenting on the strong growth achieved by food at Fortnum and Mason, said the retailer sold meat worth around £1 million annually over its extensive butchery counter.
In the article “Fortnum’s balances local trade with global goals’ Mr Ventners, chief executive for the past seven years, says the business has focused on developing local shoppers as well as tourists.
The retailer had tripled in size, with a 12 per cent rise in sales in 2017/18 to £126 million and profits up 26 percent to £9.6 million. It had succeeded through a commitment quality, price, packaging, design and service”.
He referred to Glenarm beef from Northern Ireland as a fine example of this commitment and to its popularity with “domestic consumers who are coming back to buy it on a regular basis”.
Peter Hannan, managing director of Hannan Meats, says: “What makes the Glenarm Shorthorn beef so special is the harmony of expertise.
Our Glenarm Shorthorn farmers produce wonderful cattle and finish them to their optimum level. They arrive with us in peak condition and this allows us to mature them in a chosen fashion. The net result is beef that eats as good as it gets.”
The Co Antrim estate, according to farm manager Brian Wilson, is continually adapting to the challenges of modern farming and decided to convert to organic in 2008.
