Hegarty’s is the longest established, family owned, retail butcher shop in Derry City. They have been supplying the public with locally sourced, quality products since 1928 and continue this tradition to the present day. Centrally located in William Street, Hegarty’s has a wide range of ready to eat meals, 5 for £10, 3 for £10 and in-store cooked products.
The company had been receiving some interest in ready to cook meals to aid slimming groups and support gyms in the local areas and they wanted to develop a product that is nutritionally balanced as an entry point into this area to explore this option to develop their business.
In order to overcome this obstacle, Hugh Hegarty, made contact with North West Regional College (NWRC) Business Support Centre (BSC) who supported him through the InnovateUs programme which is funded by the Department for the Economy.
This provided 30 hours of 1:1 mentoring support from a NWRC Technical Consultant, who provided upskilling in recipe standardisation including portion control, allergen labelling and the processing requirements associated, product labelling including nutritional and quid calculations for calorie counted meals.
On completion of the project, Hegarty’s successfully developed a nutritionally balanced Salt and Chilli Chicken ready meal recipe to sell in their shop.
Testimonial from Hugh Hegarty, Owner of Hegarty’s Butchers: “It has been an absolute pleasure to work with the very professional team at Foodovation. Without the help and guidance from Foodovation, we would not have been able to produce and promote our new range of products. It has been an extremely enlightening experience and we have learned a substantial amount about the nutritional and health value of our meals. Services like this are all too often beyond the reach of many SMEs.”
