Clean sweep of retailers boosts Northern Ireland’s only yoghurt producer

Inking a significant deal to supply two varieties of luxury yoghurt to Co-op Food here means that the estate’s delicious yoghurt, the only one produced in Northern Ireland, is now readily available in every major supermarket across the province.

Hundreds of smaller grocers and delis across Northern Ireland also include the hand crafted yoghurt in their chillers.

“The order from the Co-op is a real boost and very pleasing for us especially at this difficult time,” Bryan says. “It’s also encouraging to see our yoghurt accessible in so many outlets across Northern Ireland. The Co-op deal means we have achieved total penetration of our home market. Not bad for a smaller food business based on the historic Clandeboye Estate, near Bangor,” he adds.

He continues: “We’ve seen very significant growth in our business over the past few months from the developing trend towards home cooking and baking. Our natural yoghurt is proving extremely popular with home bakers in particular,” Bryan says.

The company, he adds, has also seen its range of yoghurts included in food hampers by many delis and sold in ‘pop up’ shops opened by restaurants during the lockdown.

In addition to its outstanding success in Northern Ireland, the company, based on the lush and spectacular 2000-acre Clandeboye Estate of agri-food innovator Lady Dufferin, has developed a very strong presence in the Republic of Ireland due to its longstanding business relationship with Aldi Ireland, now Clandeboye’s biggest single retail customer. Clandeboye created special flavours for the market leader in the Republic and supplies all 142 of its stores across the country.

As a result of this impressive growth, Clandeboye Estate Yoghurt now has a presence in virtually every part of Northern Ireland and the Republic and is probably the only artisan business from here to have such an extensive market penetration.

As well as the yoghurt business, the parkland estate features a successful farming business with an award-winning herd of pedigree Jersey and Holstein dairy cows. Lady Dufferin pioneered the yoghurt business in 2007 as part of an imaginative strategy to broaden income from the farm business.

Clandeboye’s luxury yoghurt uses milk from the farm’s pedigree herd and is processed using traditional handmade techniques that include straining it through cheesecloth with absolutely no thickening additives and therefore no added fats.

The milk, sourced fresh every morning, is prepared and cultured very gently over a 24-hour period in small batches which ensure the outstanding quality and distinctively rich flavours of the extensive range of products.

“The discussions leading to the Co-op agreement began following our success in the highly influential Quality Food Awards in 2018. We had an opportunity to pitch for business with the Co-op’s business team,” Bryan explains.

“They showed a strong interest in adding our yoghurts which led to an approach by Enterprise Foods, a leading supplier of food to the Co-op, to handle our Greek-style yoghurts for the retailer.

“The buyers loved the taste of our flavoured yoghurts and chose our raspberry and white chocolate and mango and nectarine flavours,” he adds. The creamy and richly flavoured yoghurts will soon be available in all 28 Co-op Food stores across Northern Ireland. The Co-op has developed an impressive portfolio of food products sourced from many parts of the UK.

“Our yoghurt processing is now operating close to full capacity at the moment from the growth in sales of our luxury products that continue to win widespread acclaim because of their outstanding quality and, above all, taste,” Bryan says. “Plans that are under development will result in a significant increase in capacity and position us for even faster growth here and in the Republic. Our business plan also envisages entry to the market in Great Britain. We’ve already had interest from there for the yoghurts,” he adds.

Developments underway will also enable the company to harness the business benefits from the estate’s strong commitment to the environment especially in terms of waste reduction and recycling.

Clandeboye, furthermore, has long been keen to collaborate with other artisan producers here in the creation of novel products. These have already included a frozen yoghurt developed with Morelli’s Ice Cream in Coleraine, an innovation which won a major award in the Bla na hEireann Irish National Food Awards in Dingle. A unique Irish Black Butter yoghurt came from a link up with Alastair Bell of Irish Black Butter in Portrush, the producer of the unique sweet/savoury sauce based on Armagh Bramley apples.

Clandeboye Estate Yoghurt has become an excellent role model of a farm-based artisan which has grown into a market leader and is widely respected within the local

food industry and further afield.

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