BEEF

Eamon Mackle's Freezameats shows the way How NI learnt to add value End of the ban on British beef exports throws a spotlight on Northern Ireland, where foreign sales have been permitted since June but little business has been won. But the positive side of the BSE story is its influence in prompting some processors in the province to replace lost overseas commodity beef trade with new added value sales in UK retail and foodservice. The shift started years earlier, but it is clear the ban and upheaval caused by entry of discounters and then the British multiples into Northern Ireland retailing speeded the emergence into the wider UK meat product market of companies such as Eamon Mackle's Freezameats. On first impression Mackle, his ex-Goodman colleague Jim Fairbairn and the Newry plant together comprise a classic narrow margin commodity boning and packing business. The reality is a profusion of added value lines, notably own label products such as pepper steak grills for Cumbernauld retailer Farm Foods. Others, the latest a range of spicy kebabs, go out under the Farmlea brand, reflecting Mackle's appointment of marketing specialist and brand builder' SHS Group to help Freezameats find customers and tailor added value lines. "It takes sensitivity to blend the two business cultures," said SHS marketing manager Hilary Rodgers, acknowledging the high failure rate of processors trying the branded added value strategy. Her colleague, Farmlea brand manager Maeve McKervey, added: "But unlike most meat men Eamon has never been purely production driven. He dreamed up some of the new products before we could." {{MEAT }}