Silver Fern Farms is supplying a new range of lamb products to the large United Kingdom supermarket retailer Tesco, and expects to increase supply fourfold.
Tesco had redefined its corporate strategy to focus on own label across its protein range, including red meat.
That had presented the opportunity to create a new Tesco range delivering modern premium lamb cuts to consumers, Tesco buying manager Adele Davenall-Gabain said.
The deal also heralded a deeper relationship for Silver Fern Farms and Tesco, with Silver Fern Farms' brand on the new Tesco range, a first for the category.
Silver Fern Farms chief executive Keith Cooper was pleased the new arrangement increased the potential to lift supply of high value cuts into Tesco.
''This is a change from supplying our own branded packaging in a select group of Tesco stores to supplying a new Tesco branded healthy eating, extra lean range in a greater number of Tesco stores.
''We wouldn't be in this enviable position if we hadn't progressed our strategy around new cuts and the branding which promoted them; it's a significant upside for us,'' Mr Cooper said.
The company's strategy of changing the way it marketed meat from large cuts - such as heavy legs, sides and whole carcasses - to modern consumer cuts had been tested since it launched into a selected group of Tesco stores across the United Kingdom in 2011, and the new deal had seen that strategy scaled up, he said.
