Meat firm grows from breakfast
A production line at Glen Aine Foods, Knocklong, Co Limerick, and inset, sales manager Dave McGrath with some of the company’s products. Picture: Don Moloney/Press 22
Glen Aine Foods was one of the companies which came to the notice of the great and the good who attended the Irish summer breakfast in the Teagasc Food Research Centre, Ashtown during the Euroscience Open Forum.
The breakfast, sponsored by Bord Bia during Europe’s largest general science forum in mid-July, featured cured meats from the Co Limerick company.
Glen Aine, established in 1985 in Co Limerick, is a subsidiary of Lisavaird Co-op in West Cork.
Most of its pork and beef come from West Cork, and they are cooked and prepared in a variety of formats and flavours to meet the requirements of customers who include major distributors, retailers, manufacturers, and foodservice operators throughout Ireland and the UK.
Oliver Moore interviewed Glen Aine, sales director David McGrath.
>>The business started at the back of a butcher shop in Hospital, Co Limerick, in 1985, and moved to its first factory premises in 1987.
The factory expanded in 2000 and 2005, and was sold to Lisavaird Co-op in 2009. There was a major fire in Dec 2010 which completely wiped out the factory, so we started building a new factory in Apr 2011, and moved into the new factory in Oct, 2011.
In the interim, we manufactured in a small factory in Mayo, and contract manufactured in Scotland when our factory was out of commission.
>>We specialise in pork, beef, and lamb.
We do about 20 different types of cooked hams.
We do them in bulk, sliced, diced, and shaved format. We do a diced format for the pizza topping business.
Our beef is cooked beef, cooked spiced beef, cooked corned beef, cooked pastrami, all manufactured from beef silver sides. We also manufacture an American pastrami from beef brisket.
For lamb, it’s cooked legs of lamb in bulk format.
>>We purchase between 25 and 30 tonnes of meat — beef, lamb, and pork — per week, all of which is purchased in Ireland.
The pork is purchased from Stauntons Foods in Timoleague, they are our main supplier.
We also use Rosderra Foods, Dawn Pork, and Bacon of Waterford, McCarrens of Cavan. Our beef is purchased from ABP in Bandon.
>>They have a strong commitment to Irish product. They approach the business in a very professional manner. They realise that their suppliers have to make a margin, and don’t have a problem with that.
Since last April, we’ve been supplying them with a sliced product which is selling very well.
We hope to increase this business with new lines which we are currently in discussions about.
>>We have a very good relationship with Horgans Delicatessen.
We manufacture a range of Irish Angus beef exclusively for Horgans.
It’s been roast beef, spiced beef, corned beef, and pastrami, and up to now, this was produced in bulk format. Horgans are about to launch a new sliced range in the coming weeks which will be available in all the major multiples.
We also produce a range of cooked ham under the Horgan brand, most of the Angus beef products and the ham products carry the Blas Na hEireann and the Great Taste awards accreditation.
>>There is the food service sector: We supply distributors in the 32 counties, supplying hotels, restaurants, schools, prisons, and others.
We also supply wholesalers who sell onto shops.
Some of the leading Irish food manufactures use our cooked ham and beef as an ingredient for their products, such as Prestige Foods in Listowel, who we supply with ham and beef for their ready meals.
We are presently in discussions with Truly Irish with a view to producing a quality sliced ham for them to expand their range.
>>Historically, the market for cooked meats was in bulk product, that was then sliced in the corner shop and the supermarket. This is rapidly changing and the market is now demanding product that is ready sliced and ready to go. At this stage sliced is over 70% of the total retail market. There is, however, a market for bulk product in the catering and food service both here and in the UK.
>>We have started to export to the UK in the last six months and in fact have just employed a salesperson based in the UK.
Currently, we are targeting the food service sector in the UK.
We see the UK as a necessary market to increase our volume, but having said that, it is extremely competitive.
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>>I suppose the biggest drawback with the UK market is the 20c to 25c per kg that it costs to deliver to a customer in the UK.
Currency can also be a problem, it is working in our favour at present, from an exporter’s point of view, but the exchange rate changes regularly.
If we took on contracts at today’s exchange rate, it will be somewhere different in six months’ time.
The food service business, both here and in the UK, is more and more in the hands of contract caterers, and they are being supplied by large distributors such as Pallas Foods or 3663 in the UK, because of the scale of their business.
You have to be extremely competitive, but as a route to market, it has big potential.
We have BRC [British Retail Consortium] Grade 1 in place, this is vital when dealing with other companies such as food manufactures who have the scheme in place, and it also vital for business in the UK.
