Marketing Awards Recognise Food exporters

Top awards for marketing were won by two Northern Ireland food exporters - Kestrel Foods in Portadown, County Armagh and artisan business Cloughbane Farm in Pomeroy, County Tyrone.

Kestrel Foods, a manufacturer of dried fruit and nut snacks, was named Best New Product Launch/Relaunch for its Forest Feast Street Food range, which is now sold internationally. Another exporter, Dale Farm, the region's main dairy business, was highly commended for its new Protein Milk in the annual Ulster Grocer Awards.

Best Artisan Foods Campaign went to Cloughbane Farm, a farm-based meat processor that sells pies and other meat products to Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.

SPAR Passionate about Local lifted the top prize of Best 2015 Marketing Campaign for Henderson Wholesale at the awards 2016.

Award winners were announced during the Grocers' Ball, an annual gala to raise funds for grocers' benevolent fund GroceryAid. This year's sold-out event saw ?46,680 raised for the charity.

"It was fitting in Northern Ireland Year of Food & Drink to see local company Henderson Wholesale lifting a number of titles, including Best Marketing Campaign for its SPAR Passionate about Local campaign," said Alyson Magee, editor of Ulster Grocer. "Congratulations to all the winners and highly commended entries, and many thanks to the category sponsors and many businesses supporting the Grocers' Ball."

Best Marketing Campaign 2015 featured two highly commended entries, Hovis Ireland with its Ormo - Bake me happy campaign and Lidl with Lidl Community Works.

Boost Drinks led the Best Brand category, with Hovis as highly commended, while in the Best CSR Initiative/Charity Partnership, Henderson Wholesale lifted the top award and Lynn's Country Foods of Downpatrick, county Down was highly commended.

Green Retailer of the Year went to ASDA for the ASDA Sustainability Programme, and Best In-Store Consumer Sales Promotion was awarded to Henderson Wholesale for the EUROSPAR Tesco Price Match.

Finally, Mackle Petfoods was recognised for Best Food Export Marketing, with Mash Direct highly commended.