Speciality Food Launches Awards to Celebrate Start-ups

On Friday 6th October at this year’s Bread & Butter Festival, held at the Institute of Directors in London, Speciality Food will be unveiling the winners of its inaugural New Producer Awards.

The New Producer Awards were conceived with the intention of promoting the young food and drink businesses dedicated to keeping the sector vibrant, high-quality and captivating. The market is highly competitive and can be daunting for start-up companies wishing to get an equal footing in the industry – the New Producer Awards aim to identify new producers displaying unerring passion to their craft and creating exemplary food and drink.

Winners will not only obtain a coveted New Producer Award accolade, but will receive thousands of pounds worth of coverage in the pages of Speciality Food magazine and beyond, as well as get their products in front of buyers, wholesalers and key influencers in the fine food world.

The New Producer Awards are split into seven categories and completely free to enter. Those interested in applying will be able to submit an application form through the Speciality Food website (specialityfoodmagazine.com/awards), which will go on to be judged by a panel of editors from top food publications.

Those lucky enough to make it to the shortlisted stage of the awards will then have their products judged by top industry names.

Bread & Butter was the natural choice to partner with as hosts of the awards, with the organisation creating the UK’s first-ever food and drink founders festival, as well as consistently and emphatically supporting start-up businesses.

Bread & Butter, running from 6th – 7th October 2017, is a two-day conference and boot camp for emerging and scaling food and drink brands, bringing together food and drink founders, investors, media and industry leaders. Running throughout the festival is a programme of panel discussions, keynotes, workshops and mentoring sessions, and new for this year’s event, the New Producer Awards.

To reflect the diverse nature of the food and drink industry, the categories available to enter are:

• New Concept
• Innovator
• British Brand
• Sustainable Business
• Young Producer
• Crowdfunded Business
• Farm-to-Fork

Holly Shackleton, editor of Speciality Food said, “Supporting new businesses – and the subsequent evolution of the food and drink industry – is a subject close to my heart. Today’s emerging producers are the pillars of our sector’s future, so it is imperative that they are supported and celebrated in order to strengthen tomorrow’s industry. I’m delighted to be working alongside Bread & Butter on this project; as the founders of a truly innovative trade event and fervent supporters of new businesses, I’m confident that they embody exactly what the New Producer Awards are all about.”

Jason Gibb, co-founder of Bread & Butter said, “When Speciality Food asked us to help them launch their business awards we jumped at the chance. The idea behind the awards – to support, recognise and develop emerging food and drink brands – is exactly what Bread & Butter is about. The fact that it is free to enter and will give an enormous marketing boost to category finalists shows how committed Speciality Food is to supporting emerging food and drink businesses.”

Tara Mei, co-founder of Bread & Butter said, “Being a food and drink entrepreneur can be a lonely road, so we hope that the awards will give our community of emerging and scaling brands not only a huge marketing boost, but also peer recognition that they are doing a great job.”

For information about sponsorship packages email sam.reubin@aceville.co.uk.

Interested producers can now register to an alert notifying them when entries are open at specialityfoodmagazine.com/awards