HENDERSON Wholesale has launched 13 new products for the professionally hand-made The Chef range, bringing the number of recipes it has developed to more than 50.
The brand was launched with a £500,000 investment last November, bringing 14 additional jobs to Henderson’s new kitchen facilities in Randalstown.
The Chef is headed up by Spar NI’s executive chef Carl Johannesson, who was previously with the James Street South Group.
And as a result of the move, three more new staff have joined The Chef kitchen, which will invest a further £100,000 developing the site and its equipment in the next year.
Neal Kelly, fresh foods director at Henderson Group which owns the Spar and EuroSpar franchises in the north, said: “Over the past few months, the way we’ve been buying and cooking food has changed dramatically.
“With fewer options for takeaway, and eating out not looking likely for a while, shoppers have turned to higher quality pre-prepared meals that takes the work out of prepping a tasty meal.
“The Chef, which is available in selected Spar and EuroSpar stores, was launched to great success, which has led to the expansion and diversification of the range.
“People are looking for something lighter as we move into summer, and this is an opportunity for us to compete within the meal-plan market and help those who are following a calorie-controlled diet.”
The new range of under 500 calorie meals includes beef chilli, chicken tikka, katsu chicken curry and sweet potato coconut curry all served with with rice and spinach, plus noodle dishes including sliced chicken noodles with spinach and Thai sauce, and pulled pork and smoky mixed bean chilli with spinach and noodles.
The Chef team continues to work in partnership with suppliers including K&G McAtamney, Bradmount Foods, Daily Bake and Elmore Fish.
