February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Ray O’Hanlon
The Irish bacon market in the U.S. has just become a cross-border body.
A Newry, Co. Down-based firm, Eurostock Meat Marketing, has started shipping rashers and sausages to American consumers.
The move means that for the first time, fans of Irish bacon products in the U.S. will have a choice in their local stores.
For almost 10 years, Mitchelstown, Co. Cork-based Galtee has been successfully marketing imported Irish meat products from its U.S. headquarters in New Jersey.
But a new partnership between Eurostock and Waterford-based Dawn meats is out to get a slice of the imported meat pie.
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In the last couple of weeks, the two companies have started selling rashers and sausages under the Dawn Irish Gold label, in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York.
"We’re now in local stores and delis in New York, independent supermarkets in Connecticut, and in the Star Markets in Boston," said Clodagh Barry, Westmeath native and Business Development Manager for Dawn International, Inc.
"We also have a supplier starting up a home delivery service in Florida and we are also exploring the possibility of an online delivery service," Barry said from her Boston base.
The cross-border partnership entails Dawn acting as a supplier of raw material, exporter and shipper for Newry’s Eurostock.
The bacon is processed and packaged at the Newry plant, which has been able to provide more than 20 new jobs, mainly for the South Armagh area, due to the expansion into the U.S. market.
"We have been studying our marketing options in the U.S. for several years and feel that now is the time to start," Martin White, Eurostock’s managing director, said last week.
The arrival of a whiff of competition would appear to be no problem at all to Galtee and its parent company, Dairygold.
"We take the view that competition is good and will only help to expand the overall sales market for Irish bacon products," said Claire O’Donovan, regional sales manager for Galtee.
According to O’Donovan, sales of Galtee bacon products under the company’s Galtee and Shannon Traditional labels have been increasing every year since the early 1990s.
Not even the flow of Irish immigrants back to Ireland has stemmed the upward curve.
"What has happened is that many Americans have developed a taste for Irish bacon and a traditional Irish breakfast," O’Donovan said.
With that being the case, the arrival of Dawn Irish Gold products in U.S. stores would appear to be anything but a rash move.