Food Manufacture Excellence Awards finalists announced

To celebrate with top managers and staff from these and other leading food and drink processors at the Big Top-themed black-tie awards night at London’s Hilton hotel on Park Lane on 7 November, book your tables now. Don’t delay or you may find you miss out. 

Past attendees have found the event to be an essential chance to keep track of the latest trends, reward and motivate teams and customers, forge new partnerships and raise their company’s profile. 

Everyone who comes along to the gala ceremony, not just the winners, enjoys the benefit of considerable coverage on the night in terms of pictures and videos. Take a look at the image gallery from last year’s event. Or for the full list of last year’s winners, click here.

After coming along to the 2017 awards night, Abbie Crawford, new product development manager at SK Chilled Foods, said: “A brilliant night. It is great to win one of these awards and be recognised that goes into making great quality products.” 

‘Great entertainment’ 

Iba Jaggi, head of operations and exports at Nom Noms World Food, who also attended last year’s awards, said: “Fantastic event for the industry and great entertainment post awards … Thank you for a brilliant event.” 

The 2018 awards, which are sponsored by KDH Projects and Systems Integration, will kick off with a drinks reception at 7pm and feature themed entertainment and sumptuous three course dinner. 

A host of entries flooded in from a range of product categories and disciplines and in the end were whittled down to 48 finalists across 11 categories. Scroll down for the full list. Watch this space for the six Business Leaders Award finalists, voting for which will commence online shortly. 

Chilled, fresh and dairy 

The chilled, fresh and dairy sector attracted so many entries that they were split to create two sets of finalists reflecting small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large businesses, with turnovers below and above £10m. 

In recognition of the difficulty in judging big businesses alongside SMEs, for the first time awards were created for overall Large Company of The Year and Small Company of The Year. 

A judging panel of industry luminaries, expertly chaired by Iain Ferguson, former boss of Tate & Lyle and joint chairman of the Food and Drink Sector Council, found picking the winners a real challenge. But after hours of debate, weighing up the relative merits of all the entries, the decisions were made. 

Excellence, creative thinking and team work shone through all the entries, showcasing talent and trailblazing initiatives and exemplifying the industry at its best. 

Amazing stories 

Amazing stories of entrepreneurial spirit, triumph over adversity, business recovery and emerging leaders breaking new ground proved especially inspiring against the political backdrop of gloom as Brexit looms. 

Judges boasting backgrounds in food science, regulation, manufacturing, retail and logistics heaped praise on all the finalists for their innovation, ability to transcend their limitations and commercial successes. 

New categories for 2018 included Ingredients Manufacturing Company of The Year, Export Award, Partnership Award, Apprentice of the Year and Site Team of The Year.

One overall Food Manufacture Company of The Year Award is given to one of the winners from among the main Category Awards. Last year’s winner was SK Chilled Foods, which was also the winner of the Chilled Foods Manufacturing Company of The Year Award. Be there on the ground when this year’s overall winner is announced.