The Northern Ireland-based vegetable side dishes and ready meals manufacturer triumphed after first winning the Chilled and fresh category.
Mash Direct’s success was celebrated in front of hundreds of food and drink manufacturing sector guests at the Venice-themed awards ceremony, hosted by star TV presenter Carol Smillie.
Chairman of the FMEA independent judging panel Paul Wilkinson, also chair of National Skills Academy for Food & Drink – praised the high calibre of all this year’s entries. “The job of selecting one company from all the category winners just gets harder every year,” said Wilkinson.
‘New product development’
“In the end, Mash Direct clearly stood out as the best of the best in food and drink manufacturing due to its new product development, category management and a host of other factors.”
The manufacturer shared the awards limelight with a host of other food and drink manufacturing companies and individual celebrated in the FMEAs, now in their 16th year.
Among this year’s winners of manufacturing company awards were: Ginsters, Clipper Tea, Cargill and Wyke Farms. Read the full list of winners and finalists in the box below.
This FMEA‘s awards featured three individual awards: the Food Manufacture Personality of the year, the Young talent of the year award and the inaugural Me and my factory – editor’s choice award.
2 Sisters Food Group
The Food Manufacture Personality of the year was awarded to 2 Sisters Food Group technical learning and development manager Janette Graham for her pioneering work in developing the government’s new Trailblazer apprenticeship programme for the food and drink sector.
The Young talent of the year award went to Wojciech Kalinowski of Samworth Brothers’ Bradgate Bakery.
The Me and my factory editor’s choice award was won by Trevor Newman, operations director at Coca-Cola European Partners’ Wakefield site.
The Food Manufacture Group would like to thank both the FMEA category sponsors and associate sponsors. The category sponsors were: Appetite Learning, b3 jobs, Dasic International, Foodman Jobs, KDH Projects, Lauras International, Michael Page Engineering & Manufacturing, Sanderson IT Software & Services.
The associate sponsors were: AGRO Merchants, Celsius Projects, Dalziel Ingredients and Dawn Foods.
Watch out for full highlights from the big night, in words, pictures and video interviews over the coming days.
Meanwhile, could your food or drink manufacturing business rival the achievements of the firms listed below? If so, why not register your interest for the 2017 Food Manufacture Excellence Awards today?
Food Manufacture Excellence Awards: winners and finalists
Ambient manufacturing company
- Alara Wholefoods
- Jordans, Dorset & Ryvita Company (ABF) WINNER
- Kolak Snack Foods
- Nim's Fruit Crisps
- Tommy Tucker
- Weetabix
Bakery manufacturing company
- Addo Food Group
- Ginsters WINNER
- Premier Foods
- Premier Foods – Cadbury Amaze Bites
- Rise Bakery
- Winning Blend/The Welsh Pantry
Beverages manufacturing company
- Aston Manor Cider
- Coca-Cola European Partners
- Solution Sciences
- Clipper Tea, Wessanen UK WINNER
Chilled and fresh produce manufacturing company
- Bradgate Bakery
- Davison Canners
- Mash Direct WINNER
- Quinfresh
- Samworth Brothers
- SK Foods
Dairy and frozen foods manufacturing company
- Freshasia Foods
- Froneri (formerly R&R Ice Cream) WINNER
- Wyke Farms
Meat and poultry manufacturing company
- ABP UK
- Cargill WINNER
- Dunbia
- Moy Park
Environmental initiative
- ABP UK
- Ginsters
- Premier Foods
- Samworth Brothers
- Winning Blend/The Welsh Pantry
- Wyke Farms WINNER
Supply chain initiative
- Aston Manor Cider
- Ginsters WINNER
- Moy Park
Training programme
- Moy Park WINNER
- Rise Bakery
- Weetabix
Young talent of the year
- Raheem Gordon, Addo Food Group
- Wojciech Kalinowski, Samworth Brothers’ Bradgate Bakery WINNER
- Robert Powell, Dunbia
- Sarah Richards, Winning Blend/The Welsh Pantry
- Josh Sloan, Coca-Cola European Partners
- Molly Smith, Weetabix
Judges’ star performer
- ABP UK
- Davison Canners
- Premier Foods
- Rise Bakery
- SK Foods WINNER
SME(small and medium-sized enterprise) Innovation
- Alara Wholefoods
- Davison Canners
- Nim’s Fruit Crisps WINNER
- Rise Bakery
Me and my factory – editor’s choice award
- Bells Food Group: Ronnie Miles
- Coca-Cola European Partners (Wakefield): Trevor Newman WINNER
- Délifrance: Frank Bird HIGHLY COMMENDED
- Glanbia Performance Nutrition: Alex Baker
- Kellogg (Manchester): Tony O’Brien
- Signature Flatbreads: William and Charles Eid
Food Manufacture Personality of the year
- Tom Carroll, supply chain director, Graze
- Colin Dennis, immediate past president, Institute of Food Technologists
- Janette Graham, group technical learning and development manager, 2 Sisters Food Group WINNER
- Andy Morling, head of food crime at the Food Standards Agency’s National Food Crime Unit
- David Potts, chief executive, Morrisons
- Ian Wright, director general, Food and Drink Federation
Don’t miss highlights – in words, pictures and video interviews – from the big Oscar night over the coming days.