A rich heritage in food & farming

BQP had a record number of finalists in the National Pig Awards 2020, resulting in our farming partners clinching the top prize in four individual categories.

The honours recognise and reward excellence, foster innovation and inspire creativity and information sharing. It is the only awards exclusive to the British pig industry. The event has gone from strength to strength over the years and previous winners have set incredibly high standards for the rest of the industry to follow.

BQP breed and rear over 1 million pigs a year using industry-leading production systems, including outdoor born, straw-finished, RSPCA Freedom Food Assured, free range and organic. With around 30% of the UK market share, this makes us the UK’s largest pig farming business. BQP has supplied high welfare British pork to the major retailers in the UK for 40 years, since 1979.

GroceryAid has recognised the continued hard work and support of Pilgrim’s UK over the last year by once again awarding the business its coveted Gold award. We previously achievement Gold status and thanks to the efforts and dedication of the team the charity awarded Pilgrim’s UK its highest honour possible for 2021.

The Gold award is given to organisations which have carried out more than eight activities across all three of their pillars in support of the charity and its aims. The pillars include awareness, fundraising and volunteering.

In the last year alone, Pilgrim’s UK supported events and promoted internal and external activities. In addition, the business is an active member of the GroceryAid committee – contributing with expert advice and strategic support.

The consistent quality and passion we put into producing great food for Co-op were recognised at the 2019 Quality Food and Drink (Q) Awards on 22 November 2019.

Bacon Award:

Sam Reader, Jayne Bennett, Co-op Product Developer, and Tom Smith, Tulip Commercial Executive

Pork Award:

Ryan Slater, Co-op Buyer, Cameron Rigg, Co-op Product Developer, Tom Smith, Tulip Executive, and Sam Reader. Our Co-op Irresistible Smoked Back Bacon Rashers, produced at Redruth, were top of the leader board in the Bacon category.

Our slow-cooked Co-op Chinese Style Meaty Pork Ribs, launched in May 2019, were also winners in the Pork category.

Our BQP farmers were once again successful at the prestigious National Pig Awards, scooping four out of 15 awards at the annual ceremony on 18 November 2020

The event was organised by Pig World, and attended by 430 people, a new record in its six-year history.

William de Feyter won Finisher of the Year for his impressive stockmanship and exceptional performance figures.

Paul Hume won the Herd Productivity award for his 950-sow breeding herd where performance figures put him above the industry’s top 10 per cent.

Unit Manager of the Year went to Ben Brown of Norfolk Free Range’s South Repps Farm, where he manages a 1,200-sow breeding unit.

Oliver Havers from the BQP finishing team was awarded Trainee of the Year. Oliver is hard working, willing to have a go at everything, and at only 18 has a big future ahead of him.

The 2020 awards follow our 2019 success where Rebecca Hinton took home the Foodservice award. In 2020, Pilgrim’s UK was shortlisted for the Manufacturing/Processing and Rising Star award. The nominees from Pilgrim’s UK included:

Meat Businesswoman Award – Manufacturing/Processing:
Rachel Baldwin, VP HR
Lorraine Fountain,  Senior Commercial Manager

Meat Businesswoman Award – Rising Star
Joanne Kerr, Commercial Manager
Chloe Pates, Product Technologist

The awards are designed to recognise the vitally important contributions that women make to the meat sector. They are driven by reader nominations and votes with an expert judging panel selecting the winners.

We were very proud to have four amazing women shortlisted for the 2020 awards.

Rebecca graduated from the College of Food – University College Birmingham in 2007 with a Food & Consumer Management degree. After working for an artisan charcuterie business as a Sales & Marketing Manager, followed by a Production Manager role at a pie manufacturing business, Rebecca joined Tulip Bodmin in 2014. Initially joining as a Food Developer for cooked bacon, within 6 months Rebecca progressed to Customer NPD Manager for a multi-national, which was Tulip’s largest account at the site. Rebecca’s present role as a Commercial Executive, mean she works with one of Tulip’s largest customers. Rebecca’s drive and determination to succeed will no doubt lead to further progression within Tulip.

Pilgrim’s UK scooped up a host of accolades at the 2019 Meat Management Industry Awards. The Meat Management Industry Awards and Dinner is one of the most important annual business and networking event of its type for the UK meat industry. Some of the top names in the UK meat industry were presented with their winners’ trophies which included meat manufacturers, supermarkets, industry suppliers, trade organisations, trainers, catering butchers and independent retailers.

Waitrose Easy to Cook Lamb Leg Joint with Redcurrant & Rosemary Glaze won the Best Lamb Product category at the Meat Management Industry Awards on 27 June. With almost 1,000 products entered into the section this year, this is a fantastic accolade.

We were also listed as finalists in five other categories, including:

Manufacturer of the Year

Best Bacon Product: Co-op Irresistible Maple Cured Streaky Bacon

Best Pork/Pigmeat Product:Co-op Sticky Maple Pork Kebabs

Best Lamb Product: Waitrose Slow Cook Lamb Kleftiko

Training Scheme of the Year for the Tulip Apprentice Scheme.

Our Co-op Irresistible Whiskey Barrel Smoked Back Bacon was highly commended in the Best Bacon Product category.

Pilgrim’s UK was one of its main sponsors, supplying raw material for the main dinner course of pig cheek Wellington and pork loin, and presenting the winner of the Best Online Business Award.

Our apprentices throughout the business work really hard, both academically and in their day-to-day roles and the cream of the crop have been recognised for their achievements.

In line with National Apprenticeship Week, Rising Star awards 2019 were presented to the following apprentices by colleagues and managers:

Advanced Apprenticeship Award

Scott Devlin (Ashton, Butchery) – Winner

Ambassador Award

Stacey Catlow (Spalding, Business Admin) – Winner

Kendal Berry (Westerleigh, Technical) – Highly commended

Most Improved

Callum Dobson (Kings Lynn, Technical) – Winner

Treve Polgase (Redruth, Engineering) – Highly commended

Chris Bush (Ruskington, Engineering) – Highly commended

Higher Apprenticeship Award

Dominic Buchanan (Linton, Technical) – Winner

Callum Dobson (Kings Lynn, Technical) – Highly commended

Intermediate Apprenticeship Award

Adam Bates (Tipton, Butchery) – Winner

Abigail Wood (Stradbroke, Accounting) – Highly commended

Apprentice of the Year Award

Aiysha Lally (Warwick, Finance) – Winner

Ryan McGeagh (Bromborough, Engineering) – Highly commended

Ben Mawdsley (Bromborough, Engineering) – Highly commended

Emily Chater was crowned Apprentice of the Year for the prestigious Food Manufacture Excellence Awards 2021.

The Food Manufacture Excellence Awards were founded to celebrate outstanding achievements within the UK’s fast-growing food and drink industry. Rewarding all elements of food and drink manufacturing, including environmental initiatives, business acumen, business change management, supply chain innovation, young talent and teamwork.

The business also congratulated Gabrielle Freeman who also made it to the final nominations stage.