Olympic Silver Medallist and World Champion Gary O’Donovan opens Velo Coffee Roasters new coffee roasting warehouse

The deal has created three full time jobs as well as two work placements on the Cope Foundation’s “Ability@Work” project.

Olympic silver medallist, world champion and much more importantly coffee aficionado, Gary O’Donovan, today (Wednesday) officially opened Velo Coffee Roasters new coffee roasting facility and warehouse in the ‘Northside for Business’ Campus in Ballyvolane, Cork.

Following the ‘Grow with Aldi’ promotion, Velo Coffee Roasters, along with four other Irish producers, was given a one-year full listing with Aldi which began in January 2019, supporting the expansion to the purpose-built roasting and packing facility officially opened today (Wednesday) in Ballyvolane.

Welcoming the Aldi listing and his business expansion, Rob Horgan from Velo Coffee Roasters said, “The support and mentoring offered by Grow with Aldi has already benefitted our business immensely, and we are excited to see our product made available to Aldi shoppers across the country.  We believe we offer something truly unique and are thankful to Aldi for giving us the opportunity to share it.”

Velo Coffee Roasters visited a number of green bean merchants before selecting their preferred supplier based on the quality, provenance and traceability of their bean and their passion for great coffee. “If we don’t start with the best raw materials, we can’t provide you with the best coffee,” said Rob Horgan “and we are delighted that we are sharing our locally hand roasted coffee on Aldi shelves nationwide.”

“We have always taken great pride in our Irish sourcing and our support of Irish food and drink companies, having developed long-term partnerships with over 175 Irish suppliers throughout the country,” said John Curtin, Group Buying Director, Aldi Ireland. 

“For small Irish food and drinks businesses, securing a listing can be a challenging undertaking. Our Grow with Aldi programme supports producers getting their products on our shelves and to give our customers access to the best quality new products from across the country.”

The Grow with Aldi Programme has invested over €1 million euros in small Irish suppliers, with the 2019 winners due to be announced on Tuesday, 17^thSeptember at the National Ploughing Championships. The awarding of the new contract to the Cork firm  came just as research from Core Research found that buying Irish was more important than ever to Irish consumers The new data showed that 78% of Irish shoppers would choose an Irish-made product over a similar imported option.

Velo Coffee Roasters coffee is available in Aldi nationwide with two product offerings – ground and whole bean.