Armagh veggie producer Gilfresh grows as healthy foods rocket

Armagh food producer William Gilpin is justifiably delighted by the success of a decision to expand an innovative range of Gilfresh brand prepared vegetables for convenience for families and individual consumers in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

Led by William, managing director of Gilfresh Produce, the prepared veg range was a response to market research by the company, now among Ireland’s

biggest growers and processors of a variety of locally grown vegetables, showing increasing demand from consumers for healthy foods.

The success of its focus on prepared vegetables has also led to it being named as a finalist in the prestigious 2022 Irish Quality Food and Drink Awards which will take place in Dublin soon.

The coveted awards seek to recognise and celebrate the best of retail, wholesale and foodservice food and drink products available in Ireland. Gilfresh is named in the Fresh Produce – Vegetables category for its unique Fajita Kit, a mix which contains onions, peppers and a spicy seasoning sachet and offers a tasty, convenient and healthy meal solution for consumers.

William explains: “This is a versatile product which, once cooked can be enjoyed in a number of ways including in a wrap for a health lunch, with rice for a filling and tasty dinner or equally on its own as a side to a main meal. The seasoning sachet allows consumers to add flavour to their meal according to their own taste.”

After seeing the increasing demand for locally sourced, fresh food, Gilfresh invested in production facilities at its Loughgall site, enabling the company to grow its capacity to develop and strengthen its range of prepared own brand products to meet this consumer need.

As a result of this initiative and an extensive marketing drive by the company, Gilfresh Prepared Veg lines are now sold by leading retailers across the island of Ireland, including ASDA, ALDI, Dunnes Stores, Eurospar, Spar, Vivo Essentials, Vivo Extra, Mace, Centra and Supervalu. Tesco Ireland will be coming to other retailers soon.

The healthy products are also influenced by the company’s passion for the local environment and commitment to sustainability.

William continues: “We are delighted that our new range of Gilfresh Prepared Veg has come to market. We work very hard here at Gilfresh to ensure sustainability is at the centre of everything that we do. This includes sourcing locally where we can and utilising waste from the factory to produce our own green energy on site. So, we are proud to be able to bring this fantastic new range to the market to allow consumers to enjoy a sustainable, convenient purchase from a local company.”

Gilfresh has grown into an influential producer of fresh vegetables on the island of Ireland from small beginnings, which saw founder Thomas Gilpin, William’s father, start his career growing vegetables in a four-acre field at his family home, supplying a small customer base.

Thomas’s first taste of business with retailers came in the late 1980s when Gilfresh started to supply Stewart’s Supermarkets, then the biggest food retailer in Northern Ireland.

Gilfresh has continued to grow, since then, and expand its customer base, meeting demand for fresh, quality, locally grown vegetables.

The progressive family business is firmly established as one of the country’s leading vegetable providers,

William continues: “The launch of our new and improved range of Gilfresh prepared vegetables further strengthens this position and gives us a very strong base for further growth.”

He leads a team of around 140 people based from the company’s Loughgall headquarters. The current site boasts two state-of-the-art pack houses, cold storage and moisture facilities as well as a vegetable preparation facility which was first installed in 2013. There is also an anaerobic digester plant and a wind turbine on site enables the company to generate green energy to power their factory.

The new and improved Gilfresh range includes a mix of core vegetable mixes such as carrot and turnip, carrot batons, carrot, cauliflower and broccoli, sliced carrots, sliced leeks, soup vegetables and cabbage, as well as brand new additions to the range with the vegetable stir-fry, oriental stir-fry, and vegetable spice bag

“In addition, the new Gilfresh range of prepared veg also gives consumers the opportunity to purchase a locally produced product, something which is so important to today’s consumer. In fact, many of the vegetables which are supplied in the new range are grown locally on our own farm, Gilpin Farms,” he adds.

Gilpin Farms operates under the watchful eye of Richard Gilpin, head of farm operations and a cousin of William’s, growing around 500 acres of vegetables including carrots, parsnips, swede, leeks, savoy cabbage, Brussel sprouts, sweetheart cabbage, spring onions, kale, broccoli, celery and pumpkins.