Meet the finalists: Chilled, Fresh and Dairy Manufacturing Company of the Year

Charlie Bigham’s Quarry Kitchen

Quarry Kitchen produces every meal that Charlie Bigham’s sells from fresh, daily prepared ingredients. 

Over 400 people work at the site and the company has focused the last year on building skills and capability within the team to deliver on quality and efficiency. 

The company has continually invested in the business which has seen an overall increase in the capacity of the Quarry kitchen. This has been helped by investment in a spiral chiller fed by an additional cooking pit and two new high speed production lines. 

The company focuses on a complete and ongoing program of Continuous Improvement (CI). It has established a cohort of CI Leaders that provide problem solving training and ongoing coaching to 22 team leaders

Crust & Crumb Bakery 

Crust & Crumb  is based in Northern Ireland and manufactures ambient, chilled and frozen commercial and gluten free dough-based products. It specialises in producing own-label pizza bases, topped pizza, Flatbreads, Tortillas and garlic breads. It also specialises in the production of high-volume quality frozen and chilled bakery products for leading retailers, foodservice and manufacturing customers.

Working from its five production facilities it produces all its doughs from scratch proving them for up to 36 hours. 

Its strategy has been to invest in facilities, people and processes.  It runs its own wind turbine for energy, has invested in a Woodfired pizza capability fuelled by beech wood logs from renewable sources and works with strategic partners who use its bakery waste in animal feed production.  Over the last year the business has continued to grow with new international contacts. It has recently purchased a ready-made business which produces all things garlic bread.

Raynor Foods

Raynor Foods is a fast-growing UK manufacturer and supplier of food-to-go products. 

The company strategy is to focus on product quality, food safety, carbon reduction and innovation. Raynor Foods also focuses on quality assurance and has created a new deputy quality manager position to support this. 

Sustainability is at the heart of all its innovations and it has worked on The Digital Sandwich project. The AI-enhanced blockchain recording of product and process data helps to reduce the ‘bullwhip effect’, currently responsible for a high proportion of supply chain waste. This innovation is capable of unit level traceability throughout the supply chain and in totality is estimated to increase productivity by 10% and supply chain waste by 14%. 

South Caernarfon Creameries

South Caernarfon Creameries (SCC) is Wales' oldest and largest dairy co-operative, which has been farmer-owned since 1938. It produces a wide selection of premium Welsh Cheese. All products are produced and packed on-site at the creamery on the Llyn Peninsula using only Welsh milk.

‘Dragon’ is the creamery’s flagship brand. Its' cheese ranges uses Halen Mon Sea Salt, Penderyn Whisky as well as partnering with Llanfair Slate Caverns to mature its premium ranges. Its ‘Dragon’ cheese is also supplied for use into Cradocs Crackers, Tregroes Waffles and Jones’ Crisps. It participates in the annual #LoveWalesLoveTaste campaign championing Welsh producers. 

SCC manages the manufacturing process onsite at the creamery which allows it complete control over the process and supports its quality assurance systems.

The Food Manufacture Excellence Awards are also searching for nominations for the Business Leader of the Year category​.​ 

The Food Manufacture Excellence Awards will take place on Thursday 9th February 2023 at the London Hilton Bankside.

To book click here​