Food experts say Bangor’s Clandeboye Estate produces the UK’s best yoghurt

Food experts named Clandeboye Estate Yoghurt as the UK’s best in the highly influential Quality Food Awards last Monday.

The small company, the only yoghurt producer in Northern Ireland, gained the outstanding recognition for the quality and rich flavours of its multi-award winning Madagascan Vanilla Greek Style Yoghurt in the hotly contested Dairy category in the top awards, the most important of the UK’s supermarket grocery sector.

It’s a competition which often shapes decisions by supermarket buyers in Britain in their search for outstandingly tasty foods.

Bryan Boggs, Clandeboye Estate Yoghurt’s general manager, was justifiably delighted by the high profile recognition from the industry in Britain, a market the company is targeting for long-term growth.

“It’s a marvellous boost for everyone at the dairy. It is, of course, a tremendous endorsement of the team and our luxury and handcrafted yoghurts,” Bryan adds.

The recognition follows the recent choice of another Bangor food manufacturer, McWhinney’s Sausages, as the best producer of pork sausages in Europe. And other food producers such as Foyle Foods in Londonderry, Kettyle Irish Foods in Lisnaskea and Moira’s Hannan Meats collecting awards for excellence in the recent World Steak Challenge in Dublin. Another success in what is proving to be an outstanding period for Northern Ireland food and drink saw Craic Foods in Craigavon chosen as the Grand Champion in the Great British Foods Awards.

Clandeboye EstateYoghurt, which sources fresh milk from the farm estate’s pedigree and award-winning dairy herd, was chosen by the expert judges over rival dairy products from the likes of Aldi, Arla Foods, Asda and Castle Dairies, all based in Britain.

Bryan continues: “Coming out ahead of such major and highly successful food processors as these are is a measure of the premium quality and outstanding taste of our handcrafted yoghurts especially the Madagascan Vanilla. We’ll be doing our outmost to harvest the undoubted business potential of this endorsement by pressing for our first significant sales to major supermarkets in Britain. We already supply our products to all the supermarkets here and to some in the Republic of Ireland including, for example, Aldi-Ireland, one of the country’s biggest retailers.”

The Northern Ireland company has developed unique yoghurt flavours for Aldi-Ireland’s premium range. These are now available in Aldi’s network of 140 stores across the Republic.

The Quality Food Awards are designed “to recognise and reward those products which are leading the way in the market”, according to the organisers. They have a strong influence on food retailing decisions especially by major supermarkets.

Research also shows the awards showcase the quality of a winning product and bring confidence to consumers and increase sales. It shows that 74% of consumers would trust the quality of a food product carrying the quality logo; 72% of consumers had seen the logo before; and 68% said they were more likely to buy a product which had won one of the quality awards.

Winning companies, the organisers also pledge, can count on extensive marketing support from the awards to showcase their achievement especially in Great Britain.

Clandeboye Yoghurt is currently finalising a state-of-the-art creamery on the estate which will provide scope to grow sales in Great Britain. It has already received approaches from retailers there for its Greek style and Great Taste award-winning fruit-infused yoghurts.

The new factory will enable Clandeboye to quadruple production of its range of award-winning luxury yoghurts using fresh milk from the historic estate’s own pedigree Jersey/Holstein herd.

Everything from grazing to production takes place within the Clandeboye Estate. Milk is sourced daily from the herd and those of other local producers – a complete ‘farm-to-spoon’ journey. The farm currently boasts a herd of around 70 Holsteins and 30 Jerseys, regarded as among the best in Ireland.

As the only yoghurt manufacturer now located in Northern Ireland, Clandeboye’s mission is to grow the business as sustainably as possible and to maintain the high quality of its natural handcrafted yoghurts.

The estate has invested extensively in sustainability initiatives including a high-tech system that converts estate waste into electric power for the creamery which also has a longstanding and successful track record in new product development, the most recent being yoghurt topped with granola for a tasty breakfast.

Clandeboye Estate’s range of Greek style and natural yoghurts were officially launched in 2008 as a farm diversification project by owner the Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava who died last October.

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