Fermanagh firm has recipe for success at Harrods

Award winning Fermanagh Black Bacon from Enniskillen is a sizzling success with 'foodies' and other shoppers at Harrods in London.

O’Doherty’s, an Invest NI client company, has seen success in the cosmopolitan Food Hall in the Knightsbridge store produce a string of orders from restaurants and hotels in London’s upmarket Maida Vale and Greenwich districts for its branded Fermanagh Black Bacon, and prestigious restaurants serving Fermanagh Black Bacon include Clifdens in Maida Vale.

Following an initial participation in a two-week St Patrick’s Day promotion at Harrods, facilitated by Invest NI, O’Doherty’s Fine Meats supplies the store on a weekly basis. The product lines ordered have grown from the original Fermanagh Black Bacon to include traditional Irish pork sausages, pork and leek sausages, and white and black puddings.

Pat O’Doherty, Managing Director of O’Doherty’s said: “Winning repeat business from Harrods has been a major boost for the company and has led to other contracts from quality conscious chefs in hotels and restaurants in the London area. It has given our products tremendous exposure in an international marketplace for premium products."

Mr O’Doherty created a secret recipe for Fermanagh Black Bacon, now branded and attractively packaged, using traditional dry curing techniques and a blend of herbs and spices, in 1994 at the butchery business in Belmore Street, Enniskillen: a business started by his father, James, in 1957.

Sales have risen by around 25% following the deal with Harrods in March, and the firm has been encouraged by the strength of sales to Harrods over the summer months, a period when interest in bacon tends to decline.

Fermanagh Black Bacon has won a series of accolades including the Supreme Award for Outstanding Product in the prestigious Ballygowan Irish Food Writers Guild Awards in 2000 and a listing in a recent book by Rick Stein, the celebrated food writer.

“Our business in London is reinforcing our strategy which is to position our products within the developing international Slow Food movement, which emphasises the importance of the traditional virtues of quality, wholesomeness and taste,” added Mr O'Doherty.

David Bradshaw, Invest NI Client Executive in Omagh, said: “O’Doherty’s Fine Meats is an enterprising company which has built on an initial order with Harrods to exploit opportunities in London through providing consistently high quality products and hard selling.”

O’Doherty’s Fine Meats operates from an EC approved processing unit and currently employs eight people.

(SP)