Barry John's sausages to hit Lidl stores nationwide
Sean McMahon
The man behind the famed Barry John Gourmet Sausages will have his products on Lidl shelves from next Monday morning.
It’s all systems go this week at the purpose built sausage factory at Poles, as they have to turn out produce for 153 Lidl stores nationwide.
Barry Crowe is delighted that his sausages have been chosen courtesy of the Lidl Kick Start Supplier Programme.
“This break courtesy of Lidl gives us nationwide coverage with our sausages appearing on shelves in every county in Ireland,” enthused Barry Crowe, whose family butchers have been trading for four decades. Up to now Crowe Butchers have been supplying retail outlets across the North East.
Barry Crowe currently produces 30 different flavours of sausage, but initially they are limiting the number introduced to Lidl shoppers to three.
“Those three will be our chedder cheese and chilli, carmalised red onion and our famous chocolate chip and honeycomb,” he said.
Barry has been doing a lot of trade shows including Bloom and the Taste of Cavan and next has his sights on the Ploughing Championships in Tullamore later this month.
“I first started making these sausages when I was 13 years of age, and that was when I won my first award,” said the 27-year-old.
They scooped their All Ireland Award last year for their bacon and cabbage sausage. With diversification in mind they have expanded their range to include more adventurous flavours such as the exotic sweet chocolate chip and the pepperoni and cheese pizza sausages.
As part of the programme Lidl have provided a series of free, comprehensive seminars led by a panel of industry experts from Lidl Ireland and Bord Bia aimed at teaching suppliers the skills to help grow their business ahead of their products going on sale at Lidl.
“Lidl Ireland have been absolutely magnificent to work with on this initiative,” said Barry Crowe, whose sausages are one of 70-plus new products hitting the shelves courtesy of the Kick Start Supplier Development Programme.
He intends visiting Lidl Stores in the weeks ahead to coincide with the launch and meet and greet the new customers.