First Highlands and Islands Food and Drink Forum Award winners announced

Representatives from Scotland's food and drink industry gathered for the first Highlands and Islands Food and Drink Forum Awards on Friday 7th October 2005 at the Drumossie Hotel in Inverness.

Highland Park, the Orkney-based whisky distillery, received the Excellence Award. The company, which is renowned for its single malt, has recently launched a 30-year-old - one of only a few such whiskies available on a permanent basis rather than as a limited edition. This is already proving popular with the US and UK markets.

The awards were organised by the Highlands and Islands Food Forum, which was set up two years ago as a partnership between industry and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). Organisers were delighted at the amount of interest in the awards, with 79 entries from 54 companies received.

In addition to the Excellence Award, eight other categories were launched: New Product, New Business, Innovation, Health, Food and Environment, Food Tourism, Marketing and Export.

The New Product award was won by Speyside Glenlivet Water Company for their premium natural mineral water - branded as the "purest natural ocurring mineral water in the UK".

Wild Boar from Scotland won the New Business award. Set up in October 2004 to process and market the wild boar meat produced from Boars of Beauly, the business has generated considerable publicity for this natural and healthy Scottish produce as well as developing new and saleable products such as dry cure bacon and ham, sausages and pate.

The Innovation Award was received by the Really Garlicky Company (RGC), which was launched in 2001 by farmers Glen and Gilli Allingham, who were looking to diversify. Four years on, they are the largest garlic grower in the UK. The Nairn-based company supplies 220 independent outlets across the UK as well as 166 Waitrose stores.

The company has also launched 'Eazy Garlic', which is sold frozen and is 16 clove size portions of crushed garlic without any additional ingredients or preservatives. This year they trialed the supply of a variety of garlic that was harvested in December, when RGC garlic is out of season and other garlic available is of poor quality. This has proven to be a great success.

Strathaird salmon won the Health Award for its lo-salt variety, which contains 30 per cent less salt than standard smoked salmon. Since launching the product earlier this year, the Inverness-based company has sold around 7,000 packets.

The Food and Environment award was won by Aquascot, the Alness-based independent fish processing company which supplies the Waitrose supermarket with salmon and organic salmon and trout.

Since the management buy-out from their previous Norwegian owners Cermaq last year, the company has introduced various environmental policies relating to waste management and energy efficiency. This increased environmental awareness has led to significant cost reductions and the company winning a prestigious Green Apple Environment award earlier this year.

The Outer Hebrides Speciality Food Trail was awarded the Food Tourism award. There are currently 23 specialty food producers and seven associate members working together to market the trail of local food and drink producers. A number of food producers are situated in rural locations, and the food trail encourages tourists to visit areas of the islands that are off the beaten track, which in turn benefits other businesses along the way.
The Marketing Award was won by The Old Forge pub, in Inverie, Knoydart - mainland Britain's remotest pub. Despite its remote location, the pub has attracted visitors from around the world with various innovative marketing techniques.

During the low season, they run staff motivational courses, real ale appreciation tours, boat handling courses, staff training, remote weddings and music weekends. They also offer free mooring to guests, which although expensive to upkeep provide valuable business.

People can book their table or their drinks from their yacht as the staff regularly listen in to ship to shore radio. They sell CDs of live recorded music from the pub and branded clothing. All this marketing activity has led to a significant increase in turnover.

Island Bakery Organics won the Export Award for their range of premium organic biscuits, which are sold in over 5,000 specialty food retailers in the UK and 2,500 food service outlets, including Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Fornum and Mason, as well as specialty organic retailers such as Fresh and Wild and Planet Organic. The company has had huge success in markets in the USA, despite encountering problems with the USA's organic farming regulations.

The awards were funded by HIE and the private sector. The main private sector sponsor is Inverness-based Williamson Group.

Dennis Overton, chair of the Highlands and Islands Food Forum, said: "The first of the Highlands and Islands Food and Drink Forum Awards has provided an opportunity to celebrate some of the tremendous innovation now underway in businesses across the area. The great number of businesses who participated far exceeded our expectations as did the demand for tickets for the awards dinner. I wish to thank all those who have taken part to make this important event such a success."

Bob Stubbs, senior key industries manager at HIE who was also a judge, said: "The food and drink sector is extremely important to the economy of the Highlands and Islands. We are delighted with the response to these awards, which have highlighted the fantastic range of produce on offer in the area. All those who have been recognised in these awards should be proud of their achievement. We are also pleased that we now have an annual competition for the food and drink sector in the Highlands and Islands to recognise those achieving excellence in their particular field." 

The commended companies were as follows: New Product Award - Blue Coo Ice Cream; New Business Award - Grants at Craigellachie; Innovation Award - Blackwood Distillers; Health Award - Fully Peeled, Loft Youth Project; Food and Environment Award - Captain's Galley; Food Tourism Award - Brodie Countryfare; Marketing Award - Strathaird Salmon; Export Award - Gordon and MacPhail.