Wyke Farms cleans up with an environmental Oscar

Wyke Farm’s achievements were recognised in front of hundreds of food and drink manufacturing sector guests with the FMEA trophy at an awards ceremony hosted by star TV presenter Carol Smillie.

The firm’s md Richard Clothier received the award from chief executive of the Institute of Food Science & Technology and FMEA judge Jon Poole.

The west country dairy business wowed the independent judging panel – led by Paul Wilkinson, chair of National Skills Academy for Food and Drink – with its relentless dedication to promoting green and profitable business management. Its 100% Green project went far beyond standard sustainability work and Wyke Farms had taken on the role of industry ambassador, the judges agreed.

‘An ambassadorial role’

One judge said: “Wyke is consistently working behind the scenes with its partners to really get to the grass roots of tackling environmental issues in the animal industry while, at the same time, thriving as a business. It is clearly taking on an ambassadorial role to promote green business management.”

The company planned to change the food and farming sector – from the field, through processing to retail. It has a visitor centre, sells green gas to customers and even pays its milk suppliers an annual premium for using their own environmental energy.

Wyke Farms won the award after beating off stiff competition from five other firms, including ABP UK and Premier Foods. Read the full shortlist in the box below.

Food Manufacture company of the year

Meanwhile, the overall coveted title Food Manufacture Company of the Year was won by Mash Direct after it won the Chilled and Fresh category earlier in the evening.

The Food Manufacture Personality of the Year title went 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.

This year’s FMEAs award ceremony took place on the evening of Wednesday, November 2.

Does your food or drink manufacturing business match or exceed the achievements of this year’s Oscar winners and finalists? Find out by registering your interest in the 2017 Food Manufacture Excellence Awards.