Tom Durcan Meats, the award winning butchers in Cork’s English Market, has secured a contract for €250,000 to exclusively supply SuperValu, Ireland’s leading independent supermarket network, with its award winning Spiced Beef, which is used in leading restaurants such as Chapter One.
The nationwide contract was secured following a pilot scheme across SuperValu’s Cork stores, where the well-known local delicacy surpassed all sales expectations. The product will now go on sale in 150 SuperValu stores across the country. The company’s cooked sliced spiced beef recently won a bronze medal at the Blas na hEireann, Irish Food Awards.
Commenting about the contact, Tom Durcan said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to offer my award winning Spiced Beef to the whole country and I am very grateful to SuperValu for giving me this opportunity. Made with my own secret spice cure, it is sure to whet the appetite of dinner tables across the country. Four tonnes of our Spiced Beef is sold across the counter at our stall in the English Market in Cork during the Christmas period alone. I expect its popularity to multiply now having secured this contract with SuperValu.”
Martin Kelleher, Managing Director of SuperValu, added: “This contract with Tom Durcan Meats is another sign of our unwavering commitment to Irish suppliers. As the biggest supporter of the Irish food industry based on the amount SuperValu purchases from Irish suppliers, this is an example of how we help small Irish local food companies build a national footprint, and I sure this well-known Cork delicacy will soon have pride of place on many tables across the Country. This listing also helps us drive forward our SuperValu strategy to expand our range of speciality meats, with a focus on artisan Irish producers, and to provide high quality authentic products at affordable prices.”
SuperValu is the only retailer to source 100% of its meat from Ireland. All its beef, lamb, pork, bacon and chicken is born, bred and reared in Ireland, representing €183 million in retail sales or the equivalent of 95,000 cattle, 90,000 lambs and 12.5m chickens. Kantar Market Data reports that SuperValu retains the largest market share of the beef, lamb and pork market in Ireland.
SuperValu only stocks ‘Grade 1’ meat and ‘Class 1’ fruit and vegetables, ensuring consumers are provided with the best of Irish produce whenever possible. In addition, SuperValu also has the biggest network of qualified butchers, with our 400 butchers employed across our network of 194 stores.
In 2011 the total purchases of Irish goods and services made by SuperValu, was worth over €1.6bn to the Irish economy, serving to both create and protect almost 30,000 Irish jobs in the farm, food and retail sector. SuperValu is the only supermarket with a store in every county, with 194 stores across Ireland.
