Henderson Food Service unveil Supplier of the Year winners

Meat, dairy and bakery were the winning products during Henderson Foodservice’s Local Supplier of the Year Awards, presented during its annual business conference in Malone House, Belfast recently.

 Lurgan-based, New Found Joy, the artisan bakery which has become renowned for its gluten-free bakery products, was named Emerging Supplier of the Year. The Local Supplier title went to Crosskeys Meats Ltd, founded by Paul McKee and headquartered in Randalstown. And locally-based dairy processing business Dale Farm won National Supplier of the Year.

 Henderson Foodservice holds its supplier awards every year at its annual conference to mark the excellent produce and practices of the companies it works with.

 Damien Barrett, Henderson Foodservice managing director, says that the company is fortunate to have such a high quality pool of local suppliers to choose from:

“We work with 480 suppliers in the business from large multinationals to smaller local companies just starting out,” he adds. “Our relationship with those suppliers has been one of the key factors in our successful growth over the last ten years and to acknowledge this, we have created three awards to recognise emerging, national and local suppliers.”

 “Emerging Supplier of the Year winner, New Found Joy has taken a popular range of bakery treats and made them accessible to customers who require gluten-free or coeliac products. This is a growing niche market and New Found Joy are enabling us to provide our customers with much greater choice while answering new challenges.

 “We have been working with Dale Farm for many years. Together we have significantly developed the country range brand and continued to support local sourcing. Their tangible contributions to these goals makes them worthy winners of our National Supplier Award.”

 “Over the past few years we have worked on developing a partner supply relationship with Crosskeys Meats to develop our sales of primal beef cuts and pre-portioned steaks to our customers.  As we have grown, our presence and sales in this area, Crosskeys Meats have worked hard to ensure quality, supply and service are paramount and have delivered daily into our business, enabling us to meet the needs of our customers.”

 Henderson Foodservice supplies and delivers to customers across Ireland, including hotels, schools, restaurants, fast food outlets, hospitals and nursing homes.

Last year Henderson Foodservice saw sales volume growth of around 12%, largely attributable to the success of the fresh side of its business, which saw an increase in meat and poultry sales of over 25%.

 Henderson Foodservice’s annual conference took place at Malone House and was attended by staff and key suppliers including household names such as Coca Cola and Unilever as well as local companies such as New Found Joy and Crosskeys Meats.

 Adventure athlete Mark Pollock was key speaker for the event, which had a theme of Reaching New Heights.

Our picture shows Henderson Foodservice managing director Damien Barrett (right) and commercial director Peter McMeekin (third right), presenting the Supplier of the Year Awards to (from left) Libby Bogle and Katherine Rea, New Found Joy; Paul McKee and Brian Surgeoner, Crosskeys Meats Ltd andNigel Cairns, Dale Farm.