Grahams Bakery, a Northern Irish firm, has joined forces with one of the biggest supermarkets in the United Arab Emirates for a new range of mini-bite cakes and biscuits.
The bakery, which is run and owned by the Graham family, employs 30 people in Dromore, County Down, and has recently started supplying Spinneys in Dubai with a mini-bite range, which includes shortbread biscuits, brownies, Viennese whirls, and Swiss rolls. This follows business carried out by Grahams Bakery with Ocado, the online retailer.
The company has been assisted by Pan Euro Foods in Dublin in developing the business and in the delivery of products to Dubai.
The new export contract was outlined by Tim Graham, Grahams' sales and marketing director, who said, “This is a very significant contract in terms of the quality of the customer, the range of cakes that we supply, and the extent of the business.
"Spinneys is one of the biggest and most successful retailers in the Middle East, and especially in the Emirates, where it has an extensive network of retail outlets.
"We are shipping our mini range, which we launched in September, to help expand our sales outside Northern Ireland – the most important element in our business-growth strategy – fresh from the bakery. There’s a developing market for the type of cakes and biscuits that we’ve developed using traditional bakery techniques.
"We appreciate greatly the enthusiastic support from Invest Northern Ireland’s food-marketing team for our marketing activities outside Northern Ireland, which has enabled us to link up with Pan Euro Foods to supply Spinneys, and also for brokering contracts with Ocado, the online supermarket in England, and Scotmid Co-op in Edinburgh."
The products are being airfreighted straight from the bakery to Dubai by Pan Euro, and have a six-week shelf life.
Grahams Bakery was formed in 1955 to bake a wide range of traditional home-bakery items such as cakes, buns, biscuits, tray bakes, and iced diamonds for its local community. The business has since developed into a supplier of products to retailers in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.
