Food focus

Wicklow-based NutriQuick signs new €9m deal with Aldi Ireland

Aldi Ireland has agreed a new €9 million deal with Wicklow-based NutriQuick to supply all of Aldi’s 149 Irish stores with its ready meals. The new contract will see a 20% increase in the volume NutriQuick supplies Aldi annually.

As a direct result of this increase in demand, NutriQuick will now be hiring up to nine new staff at its facility in Blessington, Co. Wicklow, meaning the company will employ up to 50 people.

NutriQuick began working with Aldi Ireland in early 2019, providing its range of healthy fi tness meals – made with 100% Irish beef, chicken and turkey, including chicken curry, lean mince spaghetti Bolognese, chili con carne, and plant-based options.

The products have proved a hit with Aldi customers since launching, with sales rising more than 200% in the past two years alone.

As a result of its contract with Aldi, NutriQuick has had the security to invest in expanding its production facility and upgrading its packing and cooking lines with new equipment, which will allow for future growth and development.

Billy Carr, buying director at Aldi Ireland; Dean Siney, managing director of NutriQuick and Tom Gannon, director of NutriQuick

It has also invested in a comprehensive sustainability programme across its entire business and operations, with the aim of introducing further innovative sustainable solutions in the future.

“NutriQuick’s delicious and nutritious fi tness meals have proved a massive hit with Aldi’s customers across the board, and we’re delighted to announce this new contract,” said John Curtin, Aldi Group buying director, welcoming the new contract.

Camile Thai adds carbon emission ratings to menus

Camile Thai founder and CEO Brody Sweeney and newly appointed MD Daniel Greene along with chef Samorn Panthongkaew

In a fi rst for Irish restaurants, the Camile Thai chain will now display the carbon emissions of each dish on its menus.

The carbon footprint of a dish is multifaceted, from water consumption to storage and transport. To create a clear, concise way to communicate these values for guests, Camile worked with a leading accessible provider of food carbon labels, ‘My Emissions’.

Factoring in all the contributing elements, My Emissions has developed an A-E rating scale based on the carbon intensity of each dish (‘A’ signalling low impact and ‘E’ meaning very high impact).

Newly appointed MD at Camile Thai Ireland Daniel Greene, who in 2015 was instrumental in the development and addition of nutritional information to Camile’s menus, said: “When it comes to reducing our impact on the environment, small changes can have a huge impact. By simply swapping out beef (rated E) for tofu (rated A) in our green curry, that saves more emissions than a single train journey from London to Paris. We are all much more aware of how vital it is to make positive changes and are delighted to be able to give our guests easy access to information that can help.”

Carbon ratings for the Camile Thai menu can be found at www.camile.ie/ sustainability. Ratings will also be added to Camile menus over the coming months at all its locations in Ireland and the UK.

Green Curry

Tofu & Veg Beef

choosing tofu instead of beef saves 2.14 kgCO2

which is more than a one-way ticket from London to Paris

Each dish’s carbon footprint is displayed using an A-E rating scale

The team behind casual culinary hotspot Tír Deli on Baggot Street launched its second outlet last month on Hatch Street, Dublin 2.

With many people back to the offi ce in Dublin city, Tír says its new Hatch Street branch represents a step closer to its mission of becoming a beacon for seasonal, Irish food.

Tír’s menu currently includes its take on nostalgic classics such as the roast beef sandwich (smoke-roasted Dexter beef with salt & vinegar crisps inside, among other things) or the ham and cheese (free-range ham from North Dublin with Irish cheddar and ham crackling).

Tír donated 100% of its opening day revenue to homeless charity Focus Ireland

Tesco launches fi ve handcrafted chocolate bars in its Finest range

The Irish chocolatier experts at Lir created the new range for Tesco

Tesco Ireland has launched fi ve new handcrafted chocolate bars to its Tesco Finest range. The selection of delectable treats features silky-smooth Belgian chocolate made to perfection by the Irish chocolatier experts at Lir, an award-winning Irish company, based in Co. Meath, who have been perfecting the art of chocolate for over 30 years.

Available for €2 each, or ‘buy two for €3’ until 17 April, the new range of Belgian chocolate bars includes fi ve options ranging from classic dark and milk chocolate varieties to peppermint and orange fl avours and a scrumptious Madagascan vanilla & sea salted caramel bar.

GIY launches ‘Wasted’ food waste education programme

GIY (Grow It Yourself) has joined forces with some of Ireland’s top chefs to launch ‘Wasted’, a national, peer-to-peer education programme for chefs to reduce food waste in the foodservice industry. The initiative is supported by the Department of Environment, Climate Action and Communications and Environmental Protection Agency as part of the Circular Economy Innovation Grant Scheme.

Presently the Irish foodservice sector wastes over 200,000 tonnes of food worth €300 million per annum.

The free eight-lesson ‘Wasted’ course is delivered online and is now open for sign up at www.giy.ie/programmes/wasted/. ■

JB Dubois, head chef at Grow HQ; Janice Casey Bracken, executive head chef at Dunbrody Country House Hotel; Conor Spacey, culinary director at FoodSpace Ireland and the UK and Maurice McGeehan, performance chef at the IRFU

Rallying ahead!

A four-time winner of the British Rally Championship, retailer Keith Cronin is used to life in the fast lane. Working in partnership with Bank of Ireland, the retailer has expanded from the family store, Cronin’s Centra in Ballylickey, Co. Cork to now include a hardware shop and two more Centras within the Cronin’s portfolio, with ambitions to grow further again, writes Gillian Hamill

First opened in 1946, Cronin’s Centra Ballylickey in Bantry, Co. Cork, is solidly embedded within the local community

An Irish rally driver who is a four-time winner of the British Rally Championship as well as a competitor in two Intercontinental Rally Challenge events, perhaps it’s no surprise that retailer Keith Cronin enjoys the fast-paced nature of FMCG retail. “I love growing the business,” he tells ShelfLife. “I like taking on the challenge of the new stores and trying to get them up and running. This is a very busy environment, the retail environment, and I enjoy that; there’s no single thing you can concentrate on, you have to be looking at all the moving parts.”

Expanding business

Bank of Ireland has played a central part in the expansion plans of this fourth-generation retailer, whose family fi rst opened what is now Cronin’s Centra Ballylickey in Bantry, Co. Cork, back in 1946. “We have a Home Value hardware store as well, fi nanced through Bank of Ireland and then three years ago, again with the help of Bank of Ireland, we started to expand,” he explains. “We bought a forecourt site in Leap in Cork and then last year we bought a Centra shop in Union Hall, Skibbereen, again through Bank of Ireland and we’re looking at more sites in the future.”

The Ballylickey store fi rst partnered with the Centra brand in 2014 and the group opened their hardware store around the same time. After working to optimise the business at Ballylickey and drive footfall at that site as much as possible, the next step was looking at other sites. Financed through Bank of Ireland, Cronin says both the Leap store and the Union Hall store are now “up and running and doing really well for us”.

Fortunately, everything went smoothly in their dealings with the bank, according to Cronin, where they deal with Bank of Ireland’s head of retail sector Owen Clifford and local relationship manager Niall Connor. “They were really easy to deal with in all honesty,” he says. “We just provided them with the information, and there was no real to-ing and fro-ing. We gave them all the necessary information and they came back to us and we got loan approved; it all went very smoothly.”

Varied portfolio

While all three Cronin’s stores are with the Centra brand, each has a slightly different focus. “The forecourt site at Leap would be very much a convenience store so impulse items would be more popular. On the other hand, the Union Hall shop is very much in a rural village, and we would get a lot of basket shoppers and a few trolley shoppers there as it’s a slightly bigger store.

“Both new stores have performed really well,” he continues. A revamp and expansion are in the pipeline for the Leap store in the next year, “because there’s a lot of potential there and once we revamp it, hopefully it will go from strength to strength.” Cronin’s Centra Leap has a lot of passing trade, and as a result, a larger deli will be installed as part of the revamp to fully capitalise on that site’s potential.

One factor that all three stores have in common is that they’re all seasonal to a certain degree and very busy during the summer months. “Between part-time and full-time staff, we would probably have between 10 and 15 at Union Hall, around 20 in Leap and 50 to 60 in Ballylickey,” Cronin says.

Winning track record

Certainly, Cronin appears to be someone who thrives on delivering high standards, within both retail and rallying. He explains of his interest (and considerable success!) in rally driving: “That was in the family; my uncle used to rally so I grew up watching him and then I started racing myself when I was 14 in what’s called hot rod racing and later started rallying when I was 17.” Going with his family background seems to work well for this retailer for whom it seems retail was also in his blood. “I would have worked here even when I was in college, I would have worked weekends and worked at the summertime in the business,” he recalls. “With retail, it’s what I grew up with. I actually went away and studied accountancy, but I didn’t enjoy that and I ended up coming back into the business.”

Fast-forward to the current day, and it seems he has capitalised on his confi dence to push ahead. “Hopefully all going well, and with our relationship with Bank of Ireland, we hope to grow the business further,” he says. “We’re looking at more sites all the time.” ■