Mash Direct award boosted productivity and sales

Mash Direct in Northern Ireland saw productivity and sales increase on the back of its success in last year's Food Manufacturing Excellence Awards.

The company, a specialist in vegetable dishes and ready meals based in Comber in county Down, won the overall Food Manufacturing Excellence Award as well as a category award.

Jack Hamilton, a director of Mash Direct, said the awards had "lifted the entire company and also captured the attention of customers."

He explained how the manufacturer's double win at the Food Manufacture Excellence Awards last year contributed to improved productivity and lifted the firm's profile with customers at home and abroad.

"We have seen an increase in productivity in the fourth quarter of 2016, as well as a rise in sales," he told FoodManufacture.co.uk.

"We believe those achievements have been contributed to by the coverage we got from the Food Manufacture Excellence Awards, as well as the feel good factor of winning itself."

Mash Direct won two trophies in last year's awards. Early in the glittering awards evening in London, the ready meals and prepared vegetable supplier won the Chilled and fresh produce manufacturing company of the year, fighting off competition from Samworth Brothers and SK Foods.

Later Mash Direct won the Food Manufacture Excellence Award for Company of the Year, for its top achievement in category management and new product development.

The judges said: "Mash continued to raise its game in process innovation and by adopting clever marketing strategies for its extensive range of products."

The organisers are inviting companies interested in the awards to register their interest in this year's competition.

This year's awards celebration will take place on the evening of Wednesday November 1 at London Hilton Park Lane.