Gourmet biscuit business Grace’s, has gained a new contract to supply El Corte Inglés, an upmarket Spanish department store.

The Northern Irish firm has just delivered a consignment of its Irish shortbread and oatmeal biscuits to the store in Barcelona, in what it describes as its “biggest export order to date”.

The deal follows extensive and samplings last year by buyers in Barcelona of the company’s range of biscuits, said the firm.

William Bullock, managing director of Grace’s, said: “Signing our biggest export order to date from such an influential department store is a marvellous endorsement of the originality and quality of our biscuits. El Corte Inglés is Europe’s biggest department store and ranked fourth worldwide.”

He added that the deal was a further boost to its efforts to establish Grace’s as an international brand.

The bakery had support from Invest Northern Ireland, which facilitated meetings with a representative in Spain.