Mash Direct

Garden Gourmet, Botanic Gardens Belfast ~ 15 & 16 September
It is a rare occasion when the words “World Record” and “Potato” are heard in the same phrase but Mash Direct aimed to achieve such a feat at the Garden Gourmet Festival. While the family event drew huge amounts of exhibitors and visitors, it was Mash Direct who stole the show with the ‘Guinness World Record’ breaking “Champ Eating Championship.” The objectives were simple. The participants merely had to consume as much Mash Direct Champ as they could within one minute. After six heats, over two days a winner emerged from the vast array of splattered mashed potato and scallions to take his crown as the “Champ Eating Champion” and ‘Guinness World Record’ holder for the most mashed potato eaten within a minute. The entire Mash Direct staff offer their “Congratulations!” to Ruari McCann for his mammoth achievement of 400g. We hope that you will all begin training now, for next year’s event.

Scottish Grocer, Edinburgh ~ 11 September
The Scottish Grocer Show is the big event dedicated to Scotland’s convenience retailing market. This was an ideal opportunity to talk to retailers from the length and breadth of Scotland about our award winning products.

Speciality Fine Foods, Olympia ~ 2 September
An essential date for restaurateurs, chefs, delicatessen owners, retailers, wholesalers and distributors, the Speciality & Fine Food Fair is dedicated to delivering the best the fine food and drink industry has to offer. Mash Direct had a presence at this impressive event at Olympia.

Hillsborough Oyster Festival ~ 1 September
The autumn season began with the traditional Hillsborough Oyster Festival. With this in mind we scampered along in the famed Mash Direct vans adorned with bunny rabbits to share our samples, educate, inspire all within the impressive environment of the Castle grounds. The Mash Direct team fitted in well with a day organised for family entertainment, ranging from a Canadian Boat Race to a Soap Box Derby.

Twin Taste Fest - West Belfast & Dungannon ~ 9 & 10 August
The Curley’s Food Fest at the Kennedy Centre was a colourful affair with a vast array of speakers during the breakfast event. “The essence of this occasion is to promote the truly wonderful wealth of top quality produce from our province.” The event was a runaway success and we were more than happy to answer questions on various products and to give away delicious samples to the throng of shoppers on the day.
Mash Direct then travelled to the Oak Centre in Dungannon for another Food Festival in the same vein, providing more free samples and Mash Direct product information. Eardley, Lance and Leanne made sure that no one left feeling hungry.

Belfast Maritime Festival ~ 30 June & 1 July
The Mash Direct Team rolled into the city for the Maritime Food Festival at the Odyssey. The people of Belfast know good food when they see it and we were worked off our feet to appease the hungry festival-goers. Jenny Bristow took time out with the Mash Direct team. During the day Jenny shared her culinary expertise by demonstrating how Mash Direct products add wholesome goodness with modern convenience to everyday meals.

Taste of Dublin ~ 14-17 June 2007

Imagine foodie heaven – stunning food prepared by world famous chefs, superb drink and outstanding entertainment. That’s exactly what the Taste of Dublin is all about.

It is the place where all interested and knowledgeable “foodies” can sample the best signature dishes from a city’s finest chefs and restaurants in the sophisticated and relaxed atmosphere of a beautiful park. Alongside the restaurants are a carefully edited range of the very best drink and speciality food companies from small producers through to big brand names. We were delighted to have been specially selected to attend the festival.

Is there any better to get over a dreary June afternoon by sitting down to a steaming plate of mashed potato? This seemed to be the mentality of over 28,000 visitors who waded their way to the Taste of Dublin Festival.

The adverse conditions did little to deter the masses from Iveagh Gardens and after two inclement days the visitors experienced the feel good factor in the Dublin sunshine as the Mash Direct team cooked up a feast to warm the soul. The Red Cabbage and Beetroot, and Cheese and Onion Mash proved to be extremely popular and we were continuously complimented on both taste and texture of all our products.

Belfast Children’s Festival ~ 27 May 2007

We were delighted to support the Children’s Festival Weekend ~ “Young at Art” at the Waterfront Hall. We sponsored the children’s best-loved tale Cinderella, the first performance ever in Northern Ireland by Shona Reppe Puppets, Scotland

Traffic Lights Read Go for Mash Direct!

14th July 2006

Its been another busy week on the farm…...Martin began harvesting the first of our new season parsnips, he says they are the best parsnips ever, we think he’s a bit like the man from Del Monte, we just need to get him a Panama hat.

Fruitstock here we come!
We’re thrilled to be one of the chosen few to be invited by Innocent Drinks to be part of the Farmers Market at Fruitstock - their annual festival in Regents Park in London on 5th and 6th August 2006, over 100,000 people attended last years festival. If you’d like, checkout their website www.fruitstock.co.uk
Mash Direct team will be there, if you’re around call in, if not we’ll take lots photos – watch this space!!

26th June 06 – Sainsburys Northern Ireland

Fantastic news – we are now available in Sainsburys!! Just look for us in the Fresh Produce Section – you know, where all the prepared vegetables and salads are. Sainsburys have nine really nice stores all over the North, look out for our sales team who will be in stores and would love to tell you all about our products.
www.sainsburys.co.uk

10th - 12th May 06 Balmoral Show

All agreed that this was a spectacular event. Mash Directs team was present once again. This time we conducted a survey. Over the duration of the show we talked to hundreds of people. They all very kindly took part in our survey – the results were very interesting. One of the questions we asked was – whether it was important that there are NO ARTIFICIAL ADDITIVES in our mash. A whopping 97% said that this was definitely extremely important to them and one of the reasons they bought our mash. Some people surveyed didn’t realise that we grow all our own vegetables on our farm…..well they know now!!

IFEX – 25th – 27th April 2006

The key showcase for domestic and international suppliers involved in the food industry.
It’s always nice to be back at the King’s Hall and meet up not only with our existing customers, but also meet lots of new buyers.
Our rabbit bumped into the Minister of Agriculture – Mr Toal and of course couldn’t resist the opportunity for a photo!!

Easter Saturday - Dublin 15th April 06

Our rabbit was at it again! This time parading up and down Grafton Street. What a hit he was…..kids loved him, parents loved him, the gardai loved him too! as he encouraged kids not to eat too many Easter eggs but instead plenty of good healthy vegetables. What easier way to get them?

The Belfast Telegraph N.I. Business Awards in association with BMI - 6th April 2006

It was time to get the welly boots off and get all sparkly…sparkly…sparkly! Great awards ceremony, fantastic speeches and wait for it….yes we won first place in the Excellence in Innovation Category.
Martin and Tracy collected the award to the sound of ‘Monster Mash’ and cheering from the Mash Direct team!!
On the same night Mash Direct sponsored a ‘charity pub quiz’, our team there wasn’t as successful – but you can’t win them all.

Tesco (Ireland) – 27th March 2006

We are thrilled that our mashed vegetable range is now on the shelves of Tesco. You’ll find them in the ready meals/convenience section. Orders have been brilliant so looks like we’re a big hit with Tesco shoppers too!!
www.tesco.ie

St. Patrick’s Day Parade – Dublin 17th March

Well, what a day!!!
It kicked off with us being on national radio Today FM (some say the best radio station in Ireland) we were guests of top DJ/Presenter – Ray D’Arcy. It was all very informal and a bit of craic. Ray ate our mash live on air and recommended it to the nation, he also shared a recipe idea which involves putting cloves into mashed turnip – we haven’t tried it yet, if any of you give it a go, let us know what you think .E-mail us to info@mashdirect.com.
Meanwhile outside the weather was absolutely freezing, but that didn’t deter the Mash Direct band of jaunty volunteers who were busy blowing up green balloons and giving them out to all the kids watching the parade…lots of adults wanted them too, but then, they were nice balloons!

Superquinn Irish Festival – 1st – 21st March 2006

We are delighted to be supporting Superquinn in this festival – Irish grown products at an Irish festival!
For the duration of the festival we shall be in all the lovely Superquinn stores – look out for our reps who will be handing out samples of our lovely mash and little goodies for the kids!

Hotelympia Exhibition – 19th – 23rd February 2006

We were delighted to showcase our mash at this superb food exhibition. Thanks to Invest N.I. for having us share their stand. It was five very busy and enjoyable days, we met lots of potential customers from all over the U.K.

Booths Supermarkets – 27th February 2006.

Booths, in their own words, pride themselves as selling “the best goods available, in attractive stores, staffed with first class assistants”. It’s great that our mash is now part of their product range.
Their stores are based mainly around Preston and Lancaster.
www.booths-supermarkets.co.uk

Spar – (U.K. and Scotland) February 2006

We were delighted to launch our products into the U.K. market through C.J. Lang in Scotland and James Hall in Preston, great for all those customers who have been looking for our products in these areas for ages.
www.spar.co.uk

McLeans 25th Anniversary Celebrations - 29th October 2005

A great day was had by all. It was a little cold and damp so our mash went down a treat – warm and comforting.
The girls were thrilled to have their photo taken with Neven Maguire, of the award winning MacNean House and Bistro, Blacklion, Co. Cavan.
Neven is a great supporter of food events all over Ireland and strongly advocates sourcing local natural ingredients from artisan producers.

The Mash Direct Tasting Team with Neven Maguire at

Mc Lean's 25th Anniversary celebration in Omagh 29th October 2005

Taste of Success - 21st October, 2005

NI Food and Drink Awards (Foodie Oscars)

Normally we are not ones for blowing our own trumpet and so we were delighted that the judges at the Northern Ireland Food and Drink Awards did it for us. It's great to be recognised for making a quality product and running a decent business. We won the Bank of Scotland (Ireland) for the best new product-small company. The judges praised Mash Direct for a range of products with simple but excellent flavour. Mash Direct then stormed on to win another award from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development for Innovation and Supply Chain Excellence. This was open to any Northern Ireland Agri food business able to demonstarte the development of an innovative product with clear added value throughout the local supply chain. So, it's no wonder Martin is smiling!

Doesn't he clean up well?

Did you see us on, GMTV, on the 2nd August, 2005?
The response has been fantastic. Gavin , driver of our ‘rabbit van’ is now a real celebrity!! As for Mr Hamilton (our boss), he’s a bit of a celebrity anyhow –he highlighted the campaign to put spuds back on the menu.

When GMTV reporter, Lesley Armstrong and her team carried out an impromptu tasting on the streets of Belfast we were amazed and delighted at the positive reaction of young people – one young lady commented that our champ was just like her granny made.

6thSeptember 05

Look out for our new cool rabbit van - Robert just loves all the attention.

We are delighted to now have our products on the shelves of Superquinn. They have 19 prestigious stores, based mainly in Dublin and the south east of Ireland (check out their website on our links page).

The official launch takes place on Monday 15th August in Superquinn, Blackrock, the Mash Direct tasting team drives into town in the ‘rabbit van’. We’ll be in store all day and at 2pm our celebrity guest, Superquinn personnel and ourselves will cut the ribbon!!! We’ll take photos so you can have a wee peep.

The 18th, 19th and 20th August sees Mash Direct tasting team in more than half of the Superquinn stores – get to one near you – special promotion prices and opportunity to talk to our reps.

New season potatoes and vegetables. We started harvesting last week so it was all hands on deck – Martin’s included!!

Next week sees the launch of Mash Direct in the majority of Spar, Mace and Londis stores in the south of Ireland, thanks to those nice people in BWG. Looks like things are going to be busy!!!