Northern Ireland -based Graham’s Bakery has secured its first supplier contract in France with a leading retail chain.
The County Down family–owned bakery has just sent the first consignment of its Irish Oat Cookies and Irish Butter Shortbread to Comptoir Irlandais. Comptoir is headquartered at Plouedem in Brittainy and has 45 stores across France in major centres, including Paris.
Tim Graham, sales and marketing director of Graham’s, said, “The order followed an approach to us by a member of Comptoir’s management team at a major food show in London. He sampled our products and was impressed by their taste and quality and also by our history.
“We subsequently sent samples to the company in France and an initial order for our Irish Oat Cookies and Irish Butter Shortbread, two of our most successful products for export, followed.
“Comptoir gives us a strong base for growth in France because of its profile as a business specialising in premium food and drink from the United Kingdom and Ireland. As well as food and drink, the stores sell a broad range of quality goods from the British Isles.
“The success of the Comptoir business model is seen in its growth to 45 stores across France in the past 30 years. This is potentially very important business for us because of the retailer’s impressive reputation and its presence in most of the nation’s main cities,” he adds.
The new business in France follows the county. Down bakery’s exports of its biscuits and other products, such as mini cakes and muffins, to the US, the Middle East and Republic of Ireland. The bakery also supplies leading retailers in Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
Exporting has become an integral part of the enterprising Northern Ireland company’s business.
The bakery, a UK Great Taste award winner, is a third generation family business that started producing a range of freshly baked breads, cakes and buns in 1956 in premises at the heart of Dromore. It operates from a state–of–the–art bakery in the town and uses local butter in its award– winning Irish biscuits, sponge cakes and swiss rolls.
The company now employs 50 people and has a portfolio of 20 different products all baked on site.
