Top chefs, rugby players, chicken wings and a celebrity bake off...it could only be Balmoral Show 2013!

The Morrows team were out in force for the eagerly anticipated Balmoral Show 2013 at the new Balmoral Park – and the most important event in Northern Ireland’s farming calendar certainly didn’t disappoint!

We enthusiastically donned our wellies to work alongside our agri-food clients over the three days of the Show. Here are some of our best bits...

Winging it with Moy Park...we worked with Moy Park to bring a huge two storey stand (with stairs...it will be an escalator next year) to the NI Food Pavilion. Visitors’ taste buds were tickled with a range of delicious hot and spicy chicken wings and succulent breaded chicken goujons which were sampled on stand. Moy Park’s Group Executive Chef, Aaron Dixon, was on hand during the Show and hosted a series of cookery demonstrations on the Moy Park stand to show visitors how to make a selection of mouth-watering chicken dishes – we have no excuses now!

Ready Steady Bake! What could be better than an Olympic legend, three rugby stars and mountains of cupcakes? We worked with Dale Farm to deliver a celebrity bake off – which pitted Dame Mary Peters against Ulster Rugby’s Paddy McAllistair, Roger Wilson and Adam Macklin to see who would produce the most perfectly decorated cupcake! True to form Dame Mary Peters emerged victorious to rapturous applause in the marquee.

We also partnered with James Street South’s head chef Niall McKenna, who offered daily Masterclasses on the Dale Farm stand to educate show-goers in the art of home baking – using the finest Dale Farm products of course!

Our Ainsley...The Asda marquee was the place to be with new and exciting products being sampled by Asda’s top suppliers across the three days. Celebrity chef Ainsley Harriott was also on hand to entertain the crowds on the stand - serving up delicious dishes alongside Asda’s expert chef – as well as choosing the winner of the Farming Life ‘Farmer’s Little Helper’ competition for 2013.

Bagel Boom! Irwin’s Bakery delighted the crowds with its new range of pre sliced bagels...available in cinnamon and raison, plain and brown – the hungry crowds couldn’t get enough of them and we even found some apprentice bakers!

These are only a few of our highlights from Balmoral Show 2013! It was a fantastic event and we even got some sunshine - roll on Balmoral Show 2014!

Are you the full Irish?

Long-standing Morrow’s client, Irwin’s Bakery and top Irish Chef, Paul Rankin are encouraging the public to join in a unique St Patrick’s Day fundraiser by downloading a new app, which asks users a series of quirky questions to work out their percentage Irishness or their “Paddy Proof.”

The Paddy Proof campaign, created by Morrow Communications, capitalises on the GB public’s desire to get involved in St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and to become – even just a little bit – Irish for the day. The app leads a wider GB focused campaign promoting the Irwin's Rankin Selection range of Irish breads and aims to give Rankin Selection “ownership” of the interaction non-Irish people have with St. Patrick’s Day.

Paddy Proof is a light-hearted, fun app and for every free UK app store download, Irwin’s Bakery will make a donation to Macmillan Cancer Support - so it’s all in aid of a very good cause. The app can also be played on Facebook and is expected to go massively viral as St Patrick’s day approaches and the Gaelic Diaspora clamours to declare their Irishness!

To download the app from the app store or play on Facebook

 

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Leading local bakery gets royal seal of approval to mark centenary

Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall paid a special visit to Irwin’s Bakery in Portadown on Friday 27th April, as part of their two day visit to Northern Ireland. The royal couple enjoyed a tour of the family-owned Irwin’s Bakery, which is this year marking its 100th year in business, tried their hand at ‘flipping’ their famous soda farls and sampled some of Northern Ireland’s finest baked goods. They then spent time meeting staff and representatives from charity, sporting and community groups who have been supported by Irwin’s; before unveiling a commemorative plaque and cutting a celebration cake.

Now in the third generation of the Irwin family, Irwin’s Bakery is headed up by brothers Brian and Niall, who were thrilled to welcome such special guests, “We are extremely honoured and proud that Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall visited Irwin’s Bakery as part of their time in Northern Ireland this week,” said executive chairman Brian Irwin. “It is particularly special that this visit took place during our centenary year. The visit created a wonderful sense of excitement and morale for our valued team of staff, as well as representative customers, suppliers, charity and community groups. A company cannot exist and thrive without the support of all these groups - particularly our staff.

“There was a great interest from the couple in the fact that we are a family-owned business and how we have grown since our beginnings in 1912. By taking a tour of the bakery floor, we were able to demonstrate how we combine years of baking expertise with modern technology to create our wide range of breads,” Brian added. “Prince Charles was particularly interested in hearing how we make our soda bread and we had a nice chat about our family recipe – but that will stay between us,” Brian said.

Prince Charles was so impressed by the company’s soda and wheaten bread that he specifically requested extra loaves of each product to bring home with him - now that's a right royal seal of approval.

Rising rugby stars primed to tackle tournament

Hot on the ‘heels’ of Ulster securing a coveted place in the Heineken Cup quarters, the draw has taken place for the 33rd annual Nutty Krust Rugby Floodlit Tournament at Portadown RFC. Always a keen supporter of grassroot sports, Morrows client Irwin’s Bakery has been primary sponsor from the tournament since its kick off in 1979.

From 8th February, Under 19 players from 15 Clubs will play every Wednesday evening at Chambers Park, Portadown, in a bid to lift the prestigious tournament trophy on 2nd May 2012. This year’s fixtures promise to make exciting viewing for all rugby supporters, with one or two piquancy matches as tournament hosts Portadown meet Ballynahinch in the first round and last year’s victors Armagh Monaghan meet Instonians.

Listen to Brian Irwin, executive chairman of Irwin's Bakery speaking about the tournament to In Touch Rugby here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fEnQXYEx6c
To follow the progress of the tournament follow Irwin’s on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/irwinsbakery

Pride in client work at Morrows

Morrow Communications entered two awards in this year's CIPR Northern Ireland PRide Awards and won in both categories. Morrows took the Gold Award in the Corporate Social Responsibility category for its communications of the Asda 'Sporting Chance' initiative, aimed at encouraging activity in young people.



The team also picked up the Silver award for the Irwin's Bakery 'Great Veda Debate' campaign, which drove sales of the popular local loaf by asking the public to join the all important 'sliced or unsliced' discussion.

The awards bring Morrows' collection to a total of 18 Gold and 15 Silver within the past three years.

Supply deal has snowball effect for bakery

Snowballs are spreading festive cheer for one local business as Irwin's Bakery has secured a major supply deal through its cakes and biscuits division, Howell Handmade. The business has won a contract to supply its locally made ‘Mini Snowballs’ to Asda stores across the UK as part of the supermarket’s ‘Chosen by You’ own-brand range.

The first ‘own label’ supply contract for the Saintfield-based home bakery, will be worth over £150k per annum to the business and will run right through the key Christmas trading period, with a view to extending this to a longer basis.

Stefan Szymura, Account Manager with Irwin’s Bakery said the contract was, “a big win for Howell Handmade and a significant development in the overall Irwin’s business strategy".

Whilst Irwin’s products have a number of ‘own brand’ deals with key retail partners UK-wide, this is the first major supply contract of this kind for a Howell Handmade product and is testament to both the quality and appeal of traditional Northern Ireland baked goods. The small sponge coconut buns were chosen for the Asda range following a series of consumer taste tests, from which Asda said feedback was "extremely positive."

Irwin’s Bakery acquired Howell in 2006 and in doing so has successfully extended its reach within the confectionery bakery category.

A baker's dozen for Irwin's

More good news for the local food sector this month as Portadown based Irwin’s Bakery has scooped a contract with Sainsbury’s in Northern Ireland to supply pancakes and soda farls for its new core range of ‘By Sainsbury’s’ own-label products.

The deal, worth over £250,000 p.a to Irwin’s, will see its locally-made products being sold in all 13 of Sainsbury’s Northern Ireland stores. This will strengthen Irwin’s already strong relationship with the retailer, which it currently supplies with around 4m products each year.

Michael Murphy, Commercial Director at Irwin’s Bakery comments, “We are delighted to have secured this deal with Sainsbury’s and are particularly proud to be producing traditional local products such as pancakes and soda farls for inclusion in their newly launched ‘By Sainsbury’s’ range. With almost 100 years experience in baking breads and hotplate products such as pancakes and soda farls, we have the expertise and knowledge that Sainsbury’s need from their supply partners to deliver first class own-brand products.”

For more information on Irwin's range of products visit http://www.irwinsbakery.co.uk/ or follow Irwin's on Facebook www.facebook.com/irwinsbakery

Local loaf takes flight

NI based Irwin’s Bakery has secured a major deal with retail giant Asda to supply its ‘Irish Batch’ bread into 150 stores in England. The deal, which is worth around £200,000 per annum to the local bakery, will make the loaf (known as ‘Nutty Krust’ in Northern Ireland) available for the first time in England.

“Developing our products into key export markets across the UK and Ireland remains central to our business strategy. We are particularly pleased to have secured this deal with Asda, which will see the iconic Northern Irish batch loaf become widely available through its store network in England,” said Michael Murphy, Commercial Director with Irwin's.

Chris Moore of Irwin's and David Quigg of Asda are pictured celebrating this partnership. For more info visit http://www.irwinsbakery.com/