Morelli signs deal with Dublin-based supermarket chain Dunnes Stores

Families across the Republic of Ireland are now able to enjoy the multi-award winning quality and creamy flavours from Coleraine’s Morelli Ice Cream as a result of a significant deal from a leading Dublin-based supermarket chain.

The latest deal signed by Morelli is with Dunnes Stores, Ireland’s biggest and hugely successful retailer, will also see the company’s authentic Italian ice cream in stores throughout Northern Ireland.

A family-owned company, Dunnes, which has been in business since 1944, has 15 stores throughout NI and diversified into food and drink in 1960. It has become the leading Irish retailer, selling food, drink, clothing and household items. The chain now has an annual turnover of more than £3 billion.

Morelli’s smooth ice cream is appearing under the supermarket’s premium Simply Better range and is an expansion of Coleraine company’s business in the Republic.

Morelli is the only Northern Ireland business to win the Supreme Champion award of the influential Ice Cream Alliance (ICA) UK trade body. It makes 40 ice cream flavours, two frozen yoghurts and two sorbets.

Five rich flavours have been developed by Morelli’s team in Coleraine in collaboration with Dunnes for the successful Simply Better range, explains Daniela Morelli-Kerr, the family-owned and managed company’s experienced sales and marketing director.

“We are thrilled to be included in the Dunne’s highly regarded premium range. The flavours are: Madagascan Vanilla Bean; Caramelised Hazelnut; Mixed Irish Berry; Butterscotch and Strawberries and Cream. The Caramelised Hazelnut flavour won a Great Taste Awards Regional Golden Fork for Northern Ireland back in 2021,” she adds.

“The new flavours are now an integral part of the Simply Better range, a premium food collection with over 350 existing products, 270 of which are produced right here in Ireland. The range is now available exclusively in selected Dunnes Stores throughout Ireland and Northern Ireland."

Daniela, who runs the business with brother Arnaldo, the managing director, explains that the ice cream producer has used “only the finest ingredients for this range from local suppliers including fresh milk and double cream from Ballyrashane Creamery, also based in Coleraine”. “We’ve included, furthermore, quality ingredients from some existing suppliers to the Simply Better range such as Irish fruit award-winning producer Wexford Home Preserves of New Ross and a luxury salted toffee sauce from What’s for Pudding from Kilmesson in Co Meath,” adds Daniela.

Eponymous with everything good about the Causeway Coast, Morelli has a longstanding and successful track record of supporting the vibrant local artisan food industry there by collaborating with smaller Northern Ireland suppliers. For example, it developed a unique Irish Black Butter ice cream flavour with Alastair Bell, founder of the Portrush-based sweet/savoury spread, and created a distinctive frozen yoghurt with Bryan Boggs of Bangor’s multi-award winning Clandeboye Estate Yoghurt, an innovative dessert which won a Blas na hEireann gold award in Dingle, Co Kerry.

A fifth generation family business, Morelli Ice Cream, which has been making the popular product since 1911, was initially based at Portrush.

It operates a number of family-owned retail outlets across Northern Ireland and supplies tubs to many of the top branded stores. Listings have been secured in some of the leading supermarkets and convenience stores in the UK and Ireland. These include Morelli branded retail tubs to Morrison’s supermarkets in Britain and Tesco in both parts of the island of Ireland.

The innovation-led business employs around 20 people and has been among the most innovative and recognised ice cream producers in the United Kingdom over many years. Morelli’s double vanilla, for example, was named Best in the UK and Ireland by ICA. Its seasonal flavours have included a Snow White Honeycomb for Christmas celebrations and a spooky Pumpkin ripple for Halloween

Morelli has a range of Libero branded dairy free ice cream range in which milk was replaced with ingredients that maintained the creaminess and flavour of ice cream. It featured a healthy coconut fat, a sugar replacement and plant extracts.

A diabetic-friendly vanilla Senza ice cream was created by Guido, the late father of Daniela and Arnaldo, who was the company’s managing director for many years. Morelli’s outstanding successes since the family first arrived in the north of Ireland from Italy in 1911 may well explain why people here now eat more ice cream than in most other parts of the UK, according to the Ice Cream Alliance.