Wins come as the company steps up its work on sustainable business
County Armagh potato processer Wilson’s Country has picked up two accolades at the 2026 Northern Ireland Food & Drink Association (NIFDA) Awards.
The company won both the Best New Product within the Service Sector Award and the Sustainable Energy Leadership gong.
“The New Product Award reflects our development of a bespoke, dome-shaped potato croquette,” Wilson’s Country managing director Lewis Cunningham explained. “They are made with a rich potato mash, cream, milk and butter, and finished with a fine dusting of bread crumbs.
“I would like to thank the staff at the Hastings Hotel Group for their input in the development of the new croquettes that resulted in them being served over the Christmas period.”
Cunningham stressed that the company’s approach is all about adding value to Irish potatoes, within the framework of developing a circular economy.
The wins come at a time when Wilson’s Country is accelerating its net-zero work. At the heart of that is an on-site 250kW anaerobic digestion (AD) plant that delivers 60 per cent of the company’s total electricity requirement on a year-round basis.
The AD is fuelled, in part, by peelings, starch and other organic energy sources produced from the potato processing operations.
“These materials are mixed with grass silage sourced from local farms,” Cunningham said. ”The digestate produced by the AD operation is used as a valuable fertiliser source on surrounding farms, thereby completing the food production circle.”
The recent installation of 143 solar panels on the roofs of the Wilson’s Country potato stores has added further to the green electricity-generation capacity across the company’s processing site.
“The AD operation and solar panels combined provide 70 per cent of our total electricity requirements, with the remaining 30 per cent coming from a network supplier providing a renewable tariff,” Cunningham noted.
The commitment to green energy utilisation has also been extended to include transport and distribution, with Wilson’s Country working closely with McCulla Ireland to ensure its consumer products are delivered to customers in lorries fuelled exclusively by biomethane.
