DAWN FARM Foods has won a €700 million contract to supply the Subway sandwich chain with meat products for the next seven years.

Dawn Farm Foods, based in Naas, Co Kildare, will supply cooked and fermented meats to EIPC, the purchasing arm for Subway, for use in its 2,885 European outlets. The contract positions the company, which has grown to become one of Ireland’s biggest food exporters since its establishment in 1985, as a key supplier to the food-service market.

Dawn Farm Foods, which is part of the privately-owned Queally Group, is already a supplier to Subway, which opened its first European store in 1993. There are more than 32,000 Subway stores worldwide.

Dawn Farm Foods chief executive Larry Murrin described the contract as a “significant deal” for the company. It follows a major investment in its manufacturing base in Ireland, which was supported by Enterprise Ireland.

“Subway has ambitious growth plans for store openings across Europe and with hard work on both sides this deal will translate into hundreds of millions of euro in export sales for Ireland,” Mr Murrin said.

Minister for Agriculture and Food Brendan Smith said the deal stressed the importance of the agri-food sector as a leading contributor to export growth and job creation.

Bord Bia has forecast that exports from the sector will return to growth in 2010 after the value of food and drink exports fell by 12 per cent in 2009 to €7.12 billion.

The Queally Group recently announced that one of its companies, meat processor QK Meats, was to lay off 90 people as a result of a restructuring.