Northern Ireland’s “thriving” bakery sector is looking towards exports to support its continued growth.
Overall bakery sales in the region have increased by 20% over the past three years, with trade into external markets rising by 14% including the key export markets of Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland, according to the country’s main economic development agency, Invest Northern Ireland.
Bakery is the third largest agri-food sector in Northern Ireland behind meat and dairy, which all contribute to a £8bn food and drink industry directly employing approximately 24,000 people.
The Northern Ireland Food & Drink Showcase is an annual exhibition organised by Invest NI, which grants a platform for local food and drink suppliers to present their ranges to various buyers in retail and foodservice channels. This year’s edition, held in Bangor, attracted a greater international contingency than previous years with invitees flying in from as far afield as the Middle East, Africa, North and South America, Asia, and Australia. It also featured for the very first time a dedicated bakery hub filled with around 20 Northern Irish bakery brands.
“Bakery is really important to Northern Ireland. We’re obsessed with our baked goods,” Invest NI director Grainne Moody told British Baker.
“You will see stuff here that you wouldn’t see anywhere else across the UK,” she added, giving the example of her beloved Fifteens – a no-bake traybake comprising digestive biscuits, cherries, marshmallows, condensed milk, and coconut.
Invest NI describes the region’s baking sector as thriving, sustainable, and ready to offer something truly special to consumers, retailers, and foodservice businesses. It adds that although the firms are rooted in heritage, they are designed to be versatile, innovative, and embrace cutting-edge trends like gluten-free, plant-based, and health-focussed options.
“Our businesses are very good at pivoting and trying to work with buyers to deliver what they want,” Moody commented. “As they are small, they can be adaptive and produce something that is slightly different, whereas the larger suppliers aren’t capable of that.”
The Invest NI director, who has been with the non-departmental public body for over two decades, highlighted another advantage of local bakery suppliers. “We’re in a unique position whereby we can trade as Northern Irish, we can trade as Irish, or we can trade as British depending on what the market values, and we do some work to understand this,” she revealed.
Bakeries are among the 3,500 Northern Irish businesses with a focus on exports that are currently working with Invest NI. They receive support – both financially and non-financially – to grow through investment in capital equipment, people, skills and training, R&D, energy efficiency, and sustainability initiatives.
Invest NI is particularly keen to help the “fairly low margin” bakery sector improve its production efficiency via technology investments, with Moody noting this will allow them to “concentrate on some of the other aspects that don’t have the headroom for”.
Here are a bakers’ dozen of Northern Irish brands that were highlighted at the Northern Ireland Food & Drink Showcase 2024:
Apple Blossom Bakery, Loughgall
Run by husband-and-wife team Jeffrey and Lorna Lee and their daughter Amy, this 10-year-old business uses Bramley apples from the family’s surrounding orchards to create apple tarts and crumbles, and have more recently extended its range to biscuits, buns, cakes, muffins, and Swiss rolls. It supplies supermarket chains including Dunnes NI, Spar, Centra, and SuperValu as well as independent retailers across Northern Ireland, and also exports to wholesalers in the Republic of Ireland and the UK.
Around Noon / Sweet Things, Newry
Having been established in 1989 on the Chambers’ family kitchen table, Around Noon has grown to become a major food-to-go manufacturer that supplies over 55m products per year to consumers on both sides of the Irish Sea as well as over in Europe via third party distributors. Last month, it entered a strategic partnership with Jason’s Sourdough on a new range of premium toasties and hot rolls. Among the products made at its Newry bakery in County Down are the Sweet Things range (a brand it bought back in 2017), which includes cakes, scones, traybakes, muffins, and pastries such as filled cruffins.
BFree / Stone Bakery, Crossmaglen
With around 80 years of operations under its belt, Stone Bakery underwent a £4m transformation in 2021 to focus solely on production of gluten-free, wheat-free, and dairy-free baked goods. Today, it stands as the largest dedicated gluten-free flatbread facility in the world, with capacity to make up to 27,000 wraps per hour. The BFree brand recently rolled out new Soft White Wraps into Tesco and Asda stores, which joined its six other gluten-free wrap varieties including High Protein, Sweet Potato, Quinoa & Chia, Wholegrain, Multigrain, and Avocado.
Black Box Donuts, Newcastle
The County Down-based doughnut specialist began in 2020, moved into a state-of-the-art bakery the following year, and subsequently launched a corporate and wedding event service along with an online store. Black Box has gained listings for its indulgent sweet treats in over 50 supermarkets across Northern Ireland, with SuperValu stores in Ireland also starting to stock its range this year, and UK retailers targeted for 2025. In addition, its trademarked ‘Conut’ – a cone-shaped doughnut designed to be filled with ice cream – has garnered millions of views on TikTok and has already picked up wholesale customers in the UK.
Crust & Crumb, Derrylin
With six sites that sit either side of the Irish border, employing a total of 850 staff, the company is the largest manufacturer of ambient, chilled, and frozen dough-based products including gluten-free options. Its expertise spans private-label pizza bases, topped pizzas, garlic breads, wraps, and flatbreads for the retail and foodservice channels, including exports to 40 countries worldwide. A £2.5m investment in a wood-fired oven helped double frozen pizza production capacity to five million units per week. Crust & Crumb won Bakery Manufacturer of the Year at the 2021 Baking Industry Awards, and was also a finalist last year.
Deli Lites, Warrenpoint
This family-run firm became the first sandwich manufacturer in the UK and Ireland to achieve B Corp accreditation in December 2022. It also creates an array of sweet bakery items including pastries, muffins, traybakes, and wrapped bars – made with likes of rich Irish butter and premium Belgian chocolate – for customers such as Aer Lingus. Some of the star products are the fudge-topped Caramelita, Cinnabun, and Salted Caramel Chocolate Brownie. Deli Lites is currently planning investment to expand production by 50% at its bakery in County Down, which employs 300 workers.
Farringford Foods, Portadown
Out of its multi-purpose, nut-free factory in County Armagh, the family-run company produces three different bakery brands. Clare’s Irish Biscuits primarily serves the Irish tourist market and retailers across the US; the Finn McCool range of individual portion flapjacks, cake slices, muffins, cookies, and biscuits is popular with transport and education-based foodservice; while Bakery’s Best selection of frozen cake slices, giant cookies, muffins, and traybakes is targeted at the thaw-and-serve market.
Genesis Bakery, Magherafelt
This 50-year-old bakery business, bought by Tayto Group CEO Paul Allen in 2018, is based close to the shores of Lough Neagh. It produces a range of handcrafted cakes and breads, mainly for the UK premium own-label market as well as under its Genesis brand. More than 400,000 units are made each week by over 300 staff including skilled bakers and hand-finishing experts. High profile examples of the products supplied by Genesis are the Victoria Sponge and Our Best Ever Mince Pies at M&S, and the Tesco Finest Bakewell Tarts, while first-to-market concepts launched over the last three years include M&S Biscakes, Tesco Finest Cupbakes, and Tesco Finest Cookie Sandwiches.
Hovis Bakeries Ireland, Belfast
Bakery giant Hovis has based the Irish side of its manufacturing business at the Apollo Road site in Belfast since 1974. It now bakes and distributes brands such as Hovis, Ormo, Mother’s Pride, and New York Bakery Co as well as private-label bread and other products for retail and foodservice customers. Hovis is Northern Ireland’s favourite pre-packaged bread brand (Nielsen Scantrack data for the 52 weeks to 10 August 2024), with its range including Soft White, Seed Sensations, and the recently launched Farmhouse Batch loaf. Ormo, meanwhile, is best known for pancakes, soda farls, potato farls, and muffins, and celebrates its 150th anniversary next year.
Irwin’s, Portadown
Beginning as a small family-run bakery in 1912, Irwin’s has grown to become Northern Ireland’s largest independent bakery supplying a wide variety of bread, rolls, and specialty items. CEO Michael Murphy previously outlined Irwin’s export ambitions with British Baker. The brand’s most iconic line is Nutty Krust, a batch loaf with a crunchy top and bottom crust which has been voted ‘Northern Ireland’s favourite product’. It also makes the Joeys range of sweet madeira buns, double rolled in flavoured coating and desiccated coconut. Earlier this year, Irwin’s unveiled its sliced Soft White Sourdough to tap into the growing demand for sourdough at supermarkets.
Kitchen Bakes, Portadown
Over 38 years, this business has grown from the McCullough family kitchen into a bakery in Lurgan and subsequently a 6,000 sq ft premises in the Portadown’s Mahon Industrial Estate – it is set to expand further with the purchase of new units to store ingredients. Kitchen Bakes started out making frozen uncooked sausage rolls, savoury pies, and fruit tarts, but now also supplies traybakes, biscuits, and pastries to convenience stores and small supermarkets in Northern Ireland, and a foodservice firm in the Republic of Ireland.
Mullaghmore Bakery, Omagh
The second and third generations of the Corrigans who set up the business 44 years ago are continuing to grow this business. They have moved on from apple tarts to produce a 150-strong range of morning breads, cakes, buns, and pastries. A recent innovation is flavoured scones, set to launch in January 2025 featuring the likes of Raspberry & White Chocolate and Lemon & Blueberry varieties. The company has also purchased a new site close to Omagh town centre for a purpose-built facility with double the capacity of its existing bakery.
New Found Joy, Lurgan
Discussions with customers led this County Armagh sweet treat specialist towards a focus on removing gluten from its traybakes, which it achieved through extensive product development work. Its range now includes its signature ‘Diana Delights’ (Belgian white and milk chocolate with coconut, shortbread, and marshmallows), chocolate brownies, caramel squares, and Rocky Roads, and it also offers the likes of plain and fruit gluten-free scones.
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