Newport-based food firm Clarks UK has sealed two major new contracts for its maple syrup and honey products – at home and abroad.

The company – which has become the biggest producer and supplier of maple syrup in the UK – has sealed a new deal to supply Asda stores with a unique clear honey.

And the business has also won a major export order to supply maple syrup to one of the biggest food distribution companies in Switzerland.

Clarks, which succeeded in capturing 60 per cent of the UK maple syrup market in less than three years, has signed an exclusive deal with Asda to launch the new Clarks Clear Honey product in 420 of its stores across Britain.

Most British honey has a tendency to crystallise and ‘set’, giving it a courser texture. But Clarks has created a blend of 15 per cent British honey with 35 per cent Acacia honey and 50 per cent blossom honey that is less likely to crystallise compared to blended competitor products.

The export order to supply maple syrup to the rapidly-growing Swiss market is initially expected to be worth around £150,000 to Clarks, who has also agreed a deal to carry out some distribution in Austria and Germany.

The first batch of Clarks Pure Maple Syrup has already been dispatched from the company’s production plant on Newport’s Queensway Meadow Industrial Estate, where 38 different products are manufactured and supplied to both consumer and industrial markets.

Clarks founder and managing director, Bob Clark, said: “Both of these new contracts are a very exciting and encouraging development for the company – and for its future success in a sector of the food industry that is continuing to grow considerably at home and abroad.

“We are particularly proud of our new clear honey product which we believe will become a UK flag bearer in a market that has been traditionally dominated by overseas blended honey.

“At the moment, British bee farmers only produce enough honey to cover around 10 per cent of what we consume in the UK, meaning 90 per cent has to be imported. This shortfall of British honey unfortunately makes it very expensive and mainly only suitable for ‘set’ honey. But we have found a solution to that.

“We believe by working with British bee farmers and giving them the confidence to invest in more hives we will be able to increase the amount of British honey we use in our product – and still keep it affordable for all our customers.”

Bob said: “The contract we have signed in Switzerland is with the biggest honey manufacturer in that country. They will act as the distributors of our maple syrup range and we believe this will be the start of a growing number of orders we can win right across Europe.

“Clarks is the only company in the world to produce, pack and supply maple syrup in squeezy bottles which consumers are increasingly turning to as the product of choice.”

More than 30,000 bottles of pure and blended Clarks Maple Syrup and honey roll off the production line each day at Clarks, with the business supplying all the big four supermarket groups of Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons.

Hotels, restaurants, cafes, schools and hospitals, as well as bread, cake, meat and other food manufacturers across the UK are also supplied with maple syrup, honey and other products from Clarks, whose turnover has soared by more than 280 per cent in just three years.

But Bob predicts the potential for further growth in the UK is “substantial” as British consumers continued to discover the benefits of maple syrup as one of the world’s lesser-known superfoods.

“We are currently producing more than two million bottles of blended maple syrup each year as well as 450,000 bottles of pure maple syrup, and both have exactly the same health benefits,” he said.