This year the food and drink businesses will compete for five established awards and three new categories. The established categories are:
· Apprentice of the Year
· Education,
· Environment
· Good employer
· Health and wellbeing
· Local community.
The new categories for this year are:
· Export Success of the Year
· Growing business of the Year
· Developing skills for the future – a category dedicated to innovative recruitment and retention activities.
John Stevenson MP, who led the judging panel and chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group for Food and Drink Manufacturing, said: “This year was the toughest judging session I have been involved with. The standard of entries was very high and it has been hard to whittle down almost 50 entries to around 20 shortlisted contenders for gold, silver and bronze awards.”
Toughest judging session
The shortlisted businesses have developed groundbreaking projects in their communities and among their own workforce, said Stevenson.
“I was also hugely encouraged to see the volume of entries for the apprentice of the year; developing skills and education categories, which shows the work that is being done to train and upskill people throughout the industry and bring forward the next generation of scientists and engineers that we need in food and drink manufacturing.”
Rick Pendrous, fellow judge and editor of our sister title Food Manufacture, agreed that the standard of this year’s entries was exceptionally high. “It is always a pleasure to help judge these awards – not least to see the determination of food and drink companies to put something back into their local communities.”
The awards recognise the contribution of initiatives that make a positive difference in local communities. This could be contributions to local schools and hospitals, or to the natural environment via waste reduction schemes and other environmental initiatives.
The winters of the awards will be announced at a lunch at the Globe Theatre, London on Wednesday 24 October 2012.
