North Cork Creameries' Ór-Real Irish Butter will soon be available in SuperValu stores nationwide after performing strongly on the shelves of Centra outlets.
The butter is made using the traditional method of slow churning by the Kanturk company, which employs 100 people and supports 250 family farm milk suppliers.
Revenues at North Cork Creameries rose 16% in 2021 to just over €155m as the farmer-owned independent cooperative processed 226m lites of whole milk and produced 17,580 tonnes of butter.
CEO Pat Sheahan said North Cork Creameries has "strong ambitions" to grow Ór-Real Irish Butter.
"There is a real appetite for quality, natural products and we’re seeing a resurgence in the demand for real Irish butter," he said.
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"We’re in a unique position in North Cork with the right amount of rain and ideal soil profiles to enable us to produce the highest quality milk from grass-fed cows. We thrive on tradition and use our generations of expertise to turn the finest local milk into butter.
"We also know our farmers and their farms really well and they believe in sustainable farming. Our farmers, their families and our locality are all part of what makes Ór-Real Irish Butter special.”
Mairead Lucey, a third-generation farmer from Corbally in Kanturk whose family milk to North Cork Creameries since its establishment in 1928, said: "There is something special about seeing Ór-Real Irish Butter in shops across Ireland knowing that it was made using milk from our cows and from neighbouring farms in the area.
"I’m delighted to be able to continue the family tradition and safeguard it for future generations. We’ve introduced many sustainable initiatives in recent years including establishing hedgerows as wildlife habitat, waterways management and substituting clover for chemical fertiliser.”
North Cork Creameries won Gold in the dairy butter category of the 2021 Blas na hÉireann awards after being a finalist in 2019 and 2020. The cooperative has also won at Irish Quality Food & Drink Q Awards, and the Great Taste Awards in 2019 and 2020.
Photo: Mairead Lucey; Stacey Reen, store manager at Twohig's SuperValu Kanturk; and Pat Sheahan. (Pic: Michael O'Sullivan/OSM Photo)
