Aldi has announced it's plans to invest over €500,000 in supporting up-and-coming artisan Irish food and drink companies.
Today's announcement marks the return of it's annual ‘Grow with Aldi’ supplier development programme for 2020, which was developed in partnership with Bord Bia three years ago and designed to help small and medium producers gain experience and exposure for their products.
The discounter said that it is now seeking applications from small to medium-sized food and drink producers across Ireland to develop market-ready products for sale nationwide.
The retailer outlined that it will pick up to 60 of the products entered as part of the ‘Grow with Aldi’ Specialbuys event at the end of May 2020.
A final five of the products will then be chosen to become a core range listing in all of Aldi’s 140 stores nationwide.
Last Years Winners
Last year, Irish suppliers applied to take part in ‘Grow with Aldi’ with many hundreds of products entered.
Over 60 products went on sale in June 2019 as part of the Specialbuys event.
Six products were then chosen to form part of the core range nationwide.
The six winning suppliers and products are:
All About Kombucha, Galway - Kombucha
Funky Monkey Foods, Dublin – Curry Mix and Salt & Chilli Mix
Walls Honest Chips, Cork – Chips
Ballyvourney Pudding, Cork – Black and White Pudding
Pizzado Pizza, Co. Down – Pizza Bases
Mama Bear Ketchup, Cork - Ketchup
Since it's inception the programme has delivered over €2 million in sales for the Grow with Aldi suppliers,' the retailer said.
“The first two years of the programme were very successful for everyone involved, and Aldi business forged new links with fantastic Irish suppliers from around the country," said John Curtin, Aldi Ireland group buying director.
"The quality of food and drink produced in Ireland is outstanding and we are very much looking forward to sampling all of the products that enter this year.”
© 2020 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
