Irish Ice Cream Factory 30 Years Old-VHP Loves Ice Cream
Updated : Aug 10, 2009
Silver Pail Dairy, Ireland largest manufacturer of ice cream celebrates its 30th birthday next week.
The multi-award winning dairy currently produces over 20 million litres of ice cream each year along with frozen ice cream and frozen desserts.
The Fermoy based, family owned dairy was started by Michael Murphy in 1979 and is now managed by his daughter Thea. The multi-award winning dairy currently produces over 20 million litres of ice cream each year along with frozen ice cream and frozen desserts. It uses the traditional method to produce its real dairy ice cream from fresh dairy ingredients with a weekly intake of over 80,000 litres of cream and milk from local farms.
Silver Pail produces Corrin Hill Ice Cream, a full dairy ice cream that was developed by Thea Murphy in 2004 to offer an Irish option in the ice cream market which is dominated here by multi-national brands. Silver Pail also produces ice cream and frozen desserts for the food service industry in Ireland and the UK. Three years ago it won the contract to produce Baskin Robbins Ice Cream for the UK, Europe and the Middle East.
Over 60 people are employed at Silver Pail Dairy and many have been with the company for over two decades. Its state of the art production facility has the capacity to produce up to 80 million litres of ice cream a year in over a 100 flavours. Most of the recipes used at the dairy were developed by its in-house team of chefs and the company has received multiple awards over the years. This year the company secured 3 Gold Star Great Taste Awards and it has won multiple Great Taste Awards for Corrin Hill Ice Cream and its food service products over the past number of years. One of the unique features of the plant at Silver Pail is its capability to produce elaborate ice cream cakes and individually portioned frozen desserts.
“We are delighted that our family business has reached this important milestone and is now 30 years oldâ€, said Thea Murphy. “The past five years have been particularly successful for us and we have grown the company significantly. We continue to do very well with our export business, making ice cream under licence for international clients and producing private label ice cream. Our food service business has grown significantly and we provide premium ice cream and desserts to restaurants throughout Ireland and the UK. However indigenous Irish brands are facing a particularly difficult challenge this year as the price war in the main supermarket chains continues. Many Irish brands are under threat of de-list by stores, not because Irish consumers do not want them, but because of the discounts and scale of distribution offered by international brands. Corrin Hill Ice Cream, the brand we developed to compete with the international brands in the mid-price, family ice cream sector faces the fear of becoming one of these brands. Our key focus for this year will be to compete in this new turbulent environmentâ€.
