Two fresh produce firms came out on top at the annual IGD Food Industry Awards last week.
Lincolnshire Herbs and Barfoots of Botley championed at the ceremony with Asda, Poundland and Sainsbury’s among the other winners.
Lincolnshire Herbs, which supplies Asda, Morrisons and The Co-operative, won the Morrisons Award for Outstanding Business recognising the important contribution that small businesses make in the food industry.
The business was launched after the opportunity was spotted for the potted herb sector to see massive growth, fuelled by the huge interest in scratch cooking and flavour.
Exotic veg supplier Barfoots landed the Tetra Pak Environmental Sustainability Award after the company achieved a business carbon dioxide offset of 97 per cent within the first 10 months of its scheme.
Earlier this month, Barfoots triumphed in the Best Factory Awards, picking up the Energy and Environment trophy for the work carried out on the installation of its anaerobic digestion plant at the company's Sefter site.
Elsewhere, Brakes won the Unilever Community Award, Asda won The IGD President’s Cup and Poundland grabbed The Grocer Cup for Outstanding Business Achievement.
Patrick Bastow, MD of Lincolnshire Herbs, told freshinfo: ‘We believe that winning this award is a recognition of the efforts we makes as a a high quality, high volume, low cost supplier and the investment in sustainable innovation within the business that we have made and are continuing to make.
"We’ve entered many awards before and this is the first time we’ve actually won anything. So to win an award as prestigious as the IGD Outstanding Small Business is great recognition for the whole company."
Barfoots commercial director Jon Barfoot said: “It is a real honour to be recognised by our peers and twice in a month has blown us all away. We have worked continuously on the development of the digestion system, which has put us at the forefront of energy generation within the farming and food industry.
"For a business such as Barfoots to receive awards previously bestowed on major companies such as Marks & Spencers and Sainsburys gives the whole team an enormous sense of pride."
IGD CEO Joanne Denney-Finch said: “The Food Industry Awards recognise the best-in-class and demonstrate some of the most exciting new thinking in food and grocery. This year’s awards attracted the highest level of entries both in terms of quantity and quality.
“Our world class industry has a great story to tell and we should celebrate with great pride those companies and individuals that are putting their stamp on the industry.”
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