O'Doherty's Fine Meats wins top UK award

Fermanagh-based O'Doherty's Fine Meats has named as the Northern Ireland regional winner in the annual UK Butcher's Shop of the Year Awards.

The family-owned and managed company, based at Enniskillen, gained the award at a lunch at London's Landmark Hotel organised by Meat Trades Journal. O'Doherty's is among the most innovative meat business and has won international acclaim for its unique dry-cured Fermanagh Black Bacon and Fermanagh Black Corned Beef. The company has also gained a string of awards for its red meat products and pies.

Pat O'Doherty, managing director of O'Doherty's Fine Meats, described the award as "a marvellous endorsement of our longstanding commitment to premium quality and innovative meat products with provenance. We are delighted to have won this important recognition in a rigorous judging process that focused on product quality and innovation in meats and in the overall approach to business."

Ed Bedington, editor of Meat Trades Journal, which organises the awards, said: "These awards have been going for since the early 1990s, and it's great to see they continue to thrive, as does the trade, despite somewhat difficult economic times."



Bedington also talked about the awards as proof that innovation was working to keep the industry going. He said: "One of the great benefits of these awards is that they are an early indicator of trends and innovations.

"It can be anything from simple additions to your operations such as customer service, or new imaginative products which create excitement and drama on the counter. This innovation is vital if we are to keep driving the trade forward."

O'Dohertys Fine Meats has been in the forefront of the meat trade in Northern Ireland for over 40 years.

Shortlisted in the Northern Ireland regional category were K&G McAtamney, Ballymena, County Antrim and Quail's Fine Foods, Banbridge, County Down

The Butcher's Shop of the Year Awards are renowned as the premier event for the UK butchery sector. They recognise excellence in craft butchery and winners enter an exclusive group representing the crème de la crème of British butchery.

The awards recognise and reward the top butcher's shops across six regions before declaring one as the overall UK Butcher's Shop of the Year. Additional categories returning this year included Farm Shop of the Year, Halal Butcher's Shop of the Year, Butcher's Plus, Innovation of the Year and YoungButcher.