Northern Irish business Graham’s Bakery has secured an export deal with French retailer Comptoir Irlandais.

Graham’s will supply the chain’s 45 stores across France with its Irish Oat Cookies and Irish Butter Shortbreads.

The new deal follows the family-owned bakery securing an agreement to supply the same products to food distributors across Mexico in February.

The order followed an approach by Comptoir at a major food show in London, explained Tim Graham, sales and marketing director at Graham’s Bakery.

“They sampled our products and were impressed by their taste and quality and also by our history,” Graham said. “We subsequently sent samples to France and an initial order for our Irish Oat Cookies and Irish Butter Shortbread, two of our most successful products for export, followed.”

Graham added that Comptoir gave the bakery a strong base for growth, due to the amount of premium food and drink being stocked there from the UK and Ireland.

“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.”

The family-owned bakery also supplies its products to the US, the United Arab Emirates and Spain.