COUNTY Tyrone firm Cloughbane Farm Foods has invested more than £200,000 to launch a new range of convenience meals specifically for the children’s market.
‘Cloughbane Little Farm’ is a selection of healthy and convenient ready-meals, created for children aged from one to six.
Made from quality, locally sourced ingredients, the new range is cooked on the Robinson family farm, which stretches back more than 150 years, with four generations of the family working the land near Pomeroy.
And the products have already secured listings to the value of £750,000 with retailers including Aldi, Henderson Group and Musgrave Group, with several other orders understood to be in the pipeline.
Having been in development for three years, the launch of Cloughbane Little Farm is another significant development for the family business which now employs 50 people, having experienced 25 per cent revenue growth since 2013.
Managing director Lorna Robinson said: “We've been producing award-winning cooked dishes and pies for almost 10 years. When our own family grew, and my grandchildren were born, I was reminded of how difficult it can be for busy families to find tasty, nutritious and quick meal options for children.
"And so with the same passion for quality and taste that goes into all our products, we started to develop Cloughbane Little Farm."
She added: “The meals have been rigorously tested throughout the development process. Independent sensory analysis carried out at CAFRE compared Cloughbane Little Farm products to other children’s meals and the results show that panellists preferred the taste, appearance and texture of our range in every instance.
“As parents and grandparents, we understand how much care goes into selecting what young children eat, so these results are extremely important to us. We're proud to have created a range that helps busy families, without compromising on anything that matters.”
Until 2004, the business was simply a farm selling its beef, lamb and free range eggs to wholesalers before opening the Cloughbane Farm Shop, and since then the company has gone on to secure multiple major listings for its prepared foods with retailers across the UK including Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury.
