AWARD-winning Newry food-to-go manufacturer Around Noon has secured a tasty new contract to supply sandwiches from its 'Twelve Handmade in County Down' range to Marks & Spencer stores across the whole of Ireland.
The agreement is worth £3.5million in retail sales to Around Noon (www.aroundnoon.com), which has been in business for 30 years and employs more than 400 people.
M&S currently has 26 sandwich lines for sale in all its 38 stores across the island of Ireland, and it has plans to expand its Twelve range with Around Noon.
Twelve sandwiches are produced using ingredients from across Ireland, and among the range on sale in M&S are chicken & handmade Irish stuffing, chicken & bacon on Irish malted bread, baked Irish ham & cheddar, and BLT with Ballymaloe Relish.
Around Noon sales director Philip Morgan said: “We proposed supporting M&S’s current offering with products produced on the island of Ireland, made with Irish ingredients.
“We developed a small range of products that would exhibit provenance - as an example the bread and the chicken are produced on the island of Ireland.
“M&S have stores across the island and the ingredients come from both the north and south of Ireland as well. This is ever-more important for the M&S consumer here.
“Our ‘Twelve Handmade in County Down’ range has had a very successful resonance with the M&S shopper,” he added.
Eddie Murphy, trading director for Marks & Spencer, Island of Ireland, said: “We're impressed by the quality and provenance of the ingredients that Around Noon sources and by the service it provides.
“Working with Around Noon is helping us strengthen our supply chain and provide really high-quality products for our customers across the island.”
