Fayre's dynamic deli brand expands business in Co Down

Fayre by Corries in Greyabbey, now the fastest growing farm shop/deli/bakery in Northern Ireland, has expanded into Donaghadee with the opening of a new bakery under its established and successful Knotts Bakery brand. SAM BUTLER talked to Fayre’s William Corrie about the expansion.

In the past two years, the Greyabbey-based artisan food business has developed new outlets in Newtownards and Cherryvalley, Belfast, in addition to existing shops it has revamped in Holywood and Ormeau Road in Belfast in the company’s corporate colours.

The Holywood shop is soon to include cheese and other Mediterannean-style food provided by Belfast’s Tom and Ollie, the established provider of a range of foods, including olives and sun dried tomatoes. It has vast experience of cheese and currently sells upwards of 300 varieties at St George’s market in Belfast.

In addition, the company, which has fresh butchery counters in its Newtownards, Cherryvalley and Holywood shops, has launched a wide range of packaged meats under the Drumhilla Farm brand, which is taken from the successful family farm near Greyabbey in County Down.

Greyabbey, where most of its products are produced, has an extensive farm shop and deli that’s popular with locals. There’s also a successful Knotts Bakery with artisan foods on Belfast’s Lisburn Road.

The new business in Donaghadee is a Knott’s Bakery with a healthy range of local artisan food and drink. It offers important opportunities to local artisans and smaller food and soft drink specialists to reach a wider audience.

“We have been looking at potential outlets for our Fayre by Corries and Knotts Bakery brands,” explains William. Donaghadee offered significant opportunities, especially for the premium breads and cakes for which Knotts is justifiably famous.

"It’s a busy town, especially in the summer months, and draws shoppers from the wider area,” the 38-year-old added.

“We saw a good retail unit in the centre of the town and decided to invest in this popular part of County Down. We’ve developed an extensive offering that includes the breads and cakes with a selection of local artisan foods that we hope will appeal to residents of the ‘Dee’.

The acquisition of the popular Knotts bakery in Newtownards, which was established in 1979 and had won acclaim for the quality and outstanding taste of a wide range in-house baked goods, was agreed by William, who runs the family farm food business with Gareth, his brother. They acquired the bakery’s hugely successful retail unit in Newtownards in 2022 and feature all its breads and cakes in the developing network of delis under the Fayre by Corries brand.

The brothers had earlier acquired Four Seasons Greengrocers and Delicatessen in Cherryvalley, east Belfast, which provided an extensive range of in-house ready meals and delivery services for fruit and vegetables and other foods, especially cheese and charcuterie, over many years.

The popular deli was extensively renovated to create Fayre by Corries, a new fine food hall and the first appearance of the brand and light blue corporate identify.

Corries also acquired a fully equipped bakery unit on the Crawfordsburn Road in Newtownards.

“We were tremendously excited by the acquisition of Knotts, one of the best-known and most respected family bakeries here. Knotts Bakery has a very strong identify and is synonymous with consistently excellent baked goods,” William continues. “We’ve been developing the new Fayre by Corries food hall concept for shoppers for some considerable time and have been rolling it out. There are strong synergies between both Corries and Knotts.”

Knotts in Newtownards also boasts an award-winning and successful café/restaurant, which William believes has significant scope for further development in the short and long-terms.

“It’s an immensely attractive building featuring high ceilings and pillars with lots of space. We are planning, for example, to use space upstairs for stylish afternoon tea sessions. We’ll also be building on the popularity of the café there and working closely with Neil Graham, its excellent chef and team,” he says.

“We are also developing our relationships throughout Northern Ireland and plan to continue to offer as much support as possible to local artisans and smaller food and drink companies. There are some really outstanding food and soft drink producers here, and we are keen to help them reach out to our shoppers,” he continues.

The talented brothers have a successful track record in the development of new retail concepts. The Corries Meats shop on the Ormeau Road in Belfast was extended in 2015 by the family business from meat to the provision of hot and cold deli foods for ‘grab and go’ for office workers, workmen and students.

While William grew up on the family’s 100-acre Drumhilla beef and dairy farm, he wasn’t keen on a career in farming and turned instead initially to retailing meat from a shop on the successful farm and then opening his first distinctively branded Corries Meats at Ballyhackamore in east Belfast at the age of 21.

The family also invested around £600,000 to refurbish the factory, including a Himalayan salt chamber, which allowed them to add value and additional flavour and texture to their products and appeal to a more selective generation of consumers. The outcome of this was Drumhilla Farm products of premium meats. Fresh meats are also provided at butchery counters in many of the shops.

While William and Gareth are focused on the expanding retail operation, another brother, Richard, runs the farm and especially the extensive dairy business.