Family firm lands bumper Aldi deal

AN Aberdeenshire family firm has secured a £50,000 deal to supply Aldi stores in Scotland with freshly prepared cullen skink.
Downies of Whitehills will supply its chilled cullen skink (£1.49p/300g) from now until April as part of Aldi’s Specially Selected winter range and has already picked up a national Gold Quality Food Award in the Prepared Fish Category.
Managing director Alan Downie said: ‘We’re especially proud of this cullen skink and all that goes into it.
‘I personally source fresh haddock at the local markets in the north east before sending it to our smokehouse in Whitehills, where we use traditional oak smoking techniques to create the best natural flavour.
‘We use potatoes from Aberdeenshire in the soup and all butter, milk and cream is also Scottish. The end result is a great tasting cullen skink.
‘Aldi have been great to work with, really supporting us to get this product on to shelves. It’s already proved popular with shoppers and we hope to work with Aldi more in the coming months.’
Graham Nicolson, group buying director of Aldi Scotland, said: ‘Working with the best Scottish suppliers is hugely important to us and the cullen skink we’ve sourced from Downies is a perfect fit for us.
‘It uses great quality Scottish ingredients and, after being on our shelves for just a few weeks, has already won a Gold Quality Food Award.’