CheckoutWednesday, 1 January 2014Page: 40,41

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The Perfect Recipe Checkout pays a visit to Irish chilled ready meal producer Bally maguire Foods, and speaks to Managing Director, Ed Spelman about the company's new look.

Ballymaguire Foods (BMF) is the largest chilled ready meals producer in the Republic of Ireland. Founded in 2008 by the Hoey brothers, Gabriel and

Michael of the established Country Crest business, BMF produces approximately 80 different product offerings for the own brand, Irish retail and foodservice industry.

The Hoeys developed BMF after they recognised the changing shift in consumer lifestyles and their subsequent food tastes and demands. Through in-depth research, they identified a growth sector in the arena of 'time saving' foods, including prepared meals and meal components. Following this, Ballymaguire Foods was launched at a purpose-designed 22,000 sq ft chilled prepared meals facility on the Country Crest Agri-food site.

BMF brings the highest food production values via a handmade, home-kitchen approach to a broad range of chilled fresh meals for numerous own-brand labels. Today, BMF is Ireland's leading producer of chilled, fresh meal solutions, under popular private label and own-brand names that shoppers see

on supermarket shelves every day. The company currently employs around 200 people and farms around 2,000 acres.

Chef Standards

Borne out of Country Crest's longstanding reputation and expertise for producing quality vegetables for the Irish market, BMF's prepared, fresh meal venture was a natural extension for the company, and allowed the company to avail of all the operational and sustainable resources already in existence on site. In 2012, Ed Spelman, an accomplished businessman and award-winning chef joined the company as Managing Director. Through Spelman's existing industry contacts and culinary expertise, the business has developed to become a nationally-recognised leader and a fully integrated, meal solution provider.

Spelman explains why Country Crest was an appealing move for him, "I love the balance of efficient, fast-paced production with the attention and care of every product's ingredients and make-up. I especially love the ability to bring quality, home cooked style meals to time-poor consumers all over Ireland.

Domestic Pride: Ed Spelman, managing director

of Ballymaguire Foods and an award-winning

chef is passionately supportive of Irish produce

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At BMF, I get to work with the highest quality ingredients, primarily sourced locally or from the wider parts of our island - our own domestic resources and ingredients are some of the best in the world. Working with our solid and very skilled team, from production operatives to office based NPD and admin support is extremely rewarding."

Spelman, a Galway native, trained as a chef in GMIT Galway and worked for many years in some of Ireland and Britain's top culinary establishments, with the likes of Conrad Gallagher and Richard Corrigan. He later progressed to successfully obtain a business degree with DIT. In addition to his role as Managing Director for BMF, Spelman practices his culinary skills and expertise on a daily basis by being actively involved in daily product grading and taste testing, NPD and customer-driven recipe and product amendments. He is also on the board of SafeFood Ireland, which he feels is an agenda that BMF are playing a lead role in."BMF boast the highest grade production facilities and ingredient sourcing procedures," he explains. "We have a fully integrated quality management system in place to ensure everything is produced via best practice for SafeFood."

Growing The Business

In its infant state, BMF first produced a small selection of its own branded lines within the fresh, chilled meal and meal accompaniments category. However, in recent months it has almost completely evolved to an almost 100% retailer and customer ownbrand

product production. According to Spelman, "We have built very

strong partnerships with the likes of Musgrave Retail Partners Ireland, who service the SuperValu, Superquinn and Centra brands. With the recent launch of the SuperValu Signature Tastes Range, our partnership with the brand continues to expand, with further developments planned for 2014. Recently we have also built partnerships with Budgens in the UK." He adds that BMF value these retailer partnerships hugely and that 20% of BMF products are now exported to the UK.

BMF aims to change the perception of traditional 'ready meals', which has, he feels, hurt the wider chilled convenience food sector. "Take home meals or 'ready meals' of the past, often due to poor quality ingredients, dismal presentation and bad overall taste, have tainted the wider 'chilled convenience' food sector. What we produce at BMF is unquestionably more akin to the quality and standard of a meal or meal accompaniment you would cook at home in your own kitchen, with your own fresh ingredients."

He says that Irish and UK consumers want good food and are striving to eat well or better. "However, a huge majority of today's Irish and UK population are hugely constrained for time in their daily lives, and

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Authentically Irish: Ballymaguire Foods' product offering is "more akin to the quality and standard of a meal or meal accompaniment you would cook at home in your own kitchen, with your own fresh ingredients," says Spelman. Below: Country Crest prides itself on its environmental credentials.

to use a 'green' ethos, with 70% of its electricity requirements now generated from wind, and 100% from renewable sources. Plans are in place to build a biogas facility, which will ensure that BMF becomes 100% self-sufficient in electricity and produces less landfill waste. In addition to generating its own electricity through a wind turbine, Country Crest's and BMF's contribution to a cleaner environment includes operating an integrated crop management system on the farm (where beef, potatoes and vegetables are sourced directly for BMF production), using recyclable packaging where possible, recycling the water used in the main vegetable packhouses

and composting the green waste from

therefore look to their local retailers to provide for them and their families, convenient meal solutions that they can cook quickly or simply heat and serve, in the knowledge it comes from a trusted source with quality, wholesome ingredients." BMF also produce bespoke products and ranges for each of its core retail and trade partners to meet their consumers' individual needs.

Refreshing The Range

Sustainability Efforts

BMF not only sets out to produce quality products, but also has a commitment to the highest quality standards, local ingredient sourcing, sustainable production and overall operational efficiencies. Indeed, BMF operates in alignment with its 'Green-focused' sister company, Country Crest, which is one of the founding and originally certified members of Origin Green - Bord Bia's international sustainability program. The company is keen

the produce plants. Another integral part of BMF's

business ethics is traceability of all its ingredients. During the horsemeat scandal last year, BMF were, like many producers, indirectly affected across all of its beef lines as consumer confidence dropped. Spelman says, "Rather than bury our heads in the sand following the drop-off in beef meal sales, we decided to be proactive in tackling this issue, to ensure we remain top of our class and a name synonymous with 'Trust' to our core customers." In response, BMF and Country Crest have recently added a new division to the aligned businesses, a cattle-feeding unit. This division of the business will also be based within the Country Crest /BMF Agri-food site, and will ensure guaranteed and 100% traceability of all their own beef, literally from their 'farm' to consumers 'fork'.

BMF's plan for the future is to continue to grow and develop its existing partnerships with retail and trade partners both in Ireland and the UK. "We have a goal to double the size of our current production facility to ca. 50,000 sq ft," Spelman says. "However, our best-case scenario

would be to do all this while maintaining the unique proposition and core essence we hold as an authentic, Irish, quality food producer with the scale and efficiencies of a large scale food producer, but with the care and attention to detail of an artisan kitchen."

Ballymaguire Foods Our expertise. Your brand.

In 2013, BMF decided to makes some changes to its range. "In line with the strategic decision for the BMF business to focus the majority of its efforts on own brand production, and as part of an overall brand architecture project in 2013 (with support from BFK Design), we underwent an extensive research project focusing on trade partners, buyers, consumers and industry competitors," Spelman explains. The project helped BMF to re-design the Ballymaguire Foods logo and create a more fitting and accurate tag line to support it; 'Our Expertise. Your Brand'. "We believe this speaks volumes about the role Ballymaguire Foods now plays in the Chilled Prepared Foods Industry, specifically under (retailer) own-brand offerings."

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