Premium duck drives Silver Hill Duck’s success

Unique breed

Silver Hill Duck’s own hybrid duck breed is the real point of difference. It started out as a Pekin duck, but over the years, working closely with Chinese customers, it evolved into an exclusive crossbreed known for being flavorful, succulent, tender, and of consistent high quality. “What makes it especially attractive for Asian cuisine is the optimal meat-fat ratio. This marginally fattier duck is perfect for slow roasting, giving the duck its crispy skin and juicy meat. It’s something competitors just can’t match”, says Micheál Briody. “Since the mid 1980s, our unique duck has helped Silver Hill Duck break into the Chinatowns of London, Manchester, and Birmingham. That was the bedrock of our success. Those markets are still strong. We are the proud supplier of head-on duck to the very best Asian restaurants in Ireland and the UK for almost 40 years.” 

Asian market

Micheál Briody continues, “Asian consumers are known for choosing the best duck in the world. So it came as a surprise in 2014 when we broke into the Singapore market, given that our duck is significantly more expensive than local options. It costs more to produce fat rather than lean meat. We probably have the most expensive Peking duck breed in the world, but it is by far the best. Once our customers, and their customers, taste it, they immediately understand the higher price, because the quality is far superior to anything else on the market.”

Skin is everything

In the Asian market, it’s all about the skin quality of the whole duck. Right from the start of the process, during shackling, scalding, plucking, waxing, evisceration, the skin must remain intact. In the duck market everybody cares about the skin, but it’s very delicate. For example, when a guide bar, guiding the product into the machine, puts too much pressure on the breast side or back side, skin marks will appear immediately. “Our customers hang their ducks in the windows. There can be no blemish, no scars on the skin. If there are any punctures or visible marks, the product no longer meets what we define as our ‘Asian quality’ whole ducks,” explains Silver Hill Duck’s Managing Director.

Cropping and waxing

“A big win for us is the JBT Marel cropper machine, which enables us to remove the feedpipe and windpipe without damaging the neck or head. This is crucial since we sell head on ducks. We worked closely together to successfully get that machine in place. We never need to use the bypass, because we’re able to maintain full head on quality across all products, something we weren’t entirely sure would be achievable at first. We’re also pleased with the JBT Marel waxing system. Waxing is essential for our ducks, as they are displayed in our customers’ windows, so every feather and pinfeather has to be preened. Thanks to the system we designed together with the JBT Marel team, we’re confident in delivering a pristine duck every time,” states Micheál Briody.

The waxing system used by Silver Hill has a strong PMJ legacy (now integrated into JBT Marel). Its concept is unique, applying a continuous melting and purification process to maintain consistently high wax quality. 
After air chilling, products are dropped into bins depending on their weight and bagged and packed from there. If a product doesn’t reach the Asian quality, it won’t be bagged, but cut up manually.

Growing confidence

The relationship between Silver Hill and JBT Marel (formerly PMJ) goes back to 2003. The first steps in automation were challenging because of the fattier duck breed. This required several adjustments to the machine settings. “20 years ago, automating these processes simply wasn’t possible. But over the years, as we added more duck processing solutions, like the evisceration machines, our confidence and partnership grew. All solutions proved successful.” Silver Hill Duck has a direct line to JBT Marel in Opmeer, the Netherlands, for service, breakdown support, spare parts and more. Communication between the two companies has been smooth and that has been a key factor in the success. Micheál Briody concludes, “Our engineering team is fully trained to maintain all the machines locally. We can fix issues ourselves, but thankfully, we haven’t had any major issues at all. We do maintenance and keep spare parts on site, and we’ve had zero downtime related to JBT Marel’s equipment. So that’s pretty good.”

About Silver Hill Duck

Silver Hill was founded in 1962 by the Steele family, who began selling ducks in Emyvale and Monaghan, close to the Northern Ireland border. The business really got going in the 1980s when the company introduced its distinctive hybrid duck. Silver Hill Duck is now a fully vertically integrated operation, owning all breeding stock, egg production, hatcheries, growing farms, processing plant, cooking plant and feather plant. The company has always been strongly export led, with around 75% of its production going to export and the remaining 25% supplied to retail and restaurants in Ireland. The hybrid duck is a highly sought after premium product in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Macau, where chefs have even christened it ‘The Mother of All Duck’. The company is not focused on mass production and doesn’t aim to be in every restaurant, the top 10% of premium restaurants is their sweet spot. Today, target growth markets are Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Silver Hill’s sustainability efforts and investments were awarded by Origin Green, the Irish food and drink program.