Northern Ireland firm scoops top processor award

The event is organised annually by Meat Trades Journal (MTJ), the industry's top trade magazine.

Trevor Lockhart, chief executive of Fane Valley Dairies, the farmers' co-operative which owns Linden Foods, says: "We are delighted to have won such an influential endorsement of our processing operations. It's tremendous to gain such recognition in Britain, probably our most important market for beef."

Another Dungannon company, Dunbia, Northern Ireland's biggest beef and pork processor, took home an award for Supply Chain Initiative of the Year.



Also celebrating success was Dunbia's Neil Swann, who took the title of Young Processor of the Year. He says: "I'm very happy and pleased to have won the award. It has been a very good evening and it's great to meet colleagues from your own company and to network with people from other companies.



"It feels good to win the award and get some acknowledgment. Hopefully it will be a springboard to continue my career in the meat industry. I'm doing what I'm doing and I'll see where it takes me."



Ed Bedington, editor of MTJ, which organises the awards, adds: "We are delighted to announce our winners at these important awards, and it's great to see how well they are received.



"Every one of our winners and finalists was well-deserved and should be very proud of their successes. These awards show there are some great things going on in our industry and it's only right that we celebrate that."



The awards are sponsored by Linkfresh, Eblex, Multivac, the Meat Training Council and Reiser. Entertainment on the night was sponsored by Integreater.