Scottish garlic grower The Really Garlicky Company has won a national award for its business and innovation skills.
Nairn-based The Really Garlicky Company won the Made in Britain Food Awards’ Best Farm Entrepreneur award and £5,000 prize money for the steps it has taken to diversify its porcelain garlic farming business into a wide range of value-added products.
Husband-and-wife team Glen and Gilli Allingham competed against farmers from across the UK to win the new category supported by the Farmers Guardian, at the Country Living and Waitrose Made in Britain Food Awards.
Each year, the new award will be given to a farmer who can demonstrate flair, innovation, good business practices and a real passion for quality and consistency. Any farm-based business is eligible; the judges look for that entrepreneurial spirit which has, and will continue to, take the business forward.
Speaking on behalf of the judging panel, Malcolm Crabtree, managing director of the Waitrose Farm at Leckford said: “We judged the Really Garlicky Company a very worthy winner for the research work it continues to carry out into developing porcelain garlic in the UK; its clear vision for the brand, and its continual innovation - both on the farming side and in developing new products that use the garlic it grows.”
As well as the Farm Entrepreneur award, there were five main food award categories to honour farmers, growers, butchers, bakers, cooks and brewers, with each category winner receiving £5,000.
An overall Made in Britain Food Champion of the Year was also chosen from among these five. This year, a 10-year old Devon girl, who started her own business selling duck eggs, took the top prize.
More than 200 food and drink producers entered the awards and the judges whittled the entries down to just 18 finalists. The five winners, announced in a ceremony at the Burghley Horse Trials on September 5, each win £5,000, and be promoted at the Country Living Christmas Fair 2008 to be held at the Business Design Centre, Islington, London from November12-16.
No comments yet