Author: Robin Gregson

On Thursday 9th June, a team from Simply Doughnuts attended Tesco’s 2022 Business Update event in London. The event was a great opportunity for suppliers – their senior management, accounts teams and strategic sales and marketing staff – to learn about Tesco’s latest innovations and priorities.

Group CEO Ken Murphy (pictured right) spoke about Tesco’s vision and core purpose, while Ashwin Prasad, Group Chief Product Officer (pictured left) identified opportunities for growth and further innovation.

The event also afforded an opportunity to meet with key personnel after the presentations. We took the chance to talk with both Ken Murphy and Ashwin Prasad, and to learn about how Tesco is seeking to help consumers with ongoing cost-of-living pressures.

It was good to hear that there is a continuing emphasis, within Tesco, on sustainability and the minimisation of food waste. These are priorities that we very much share, and on which we have been making great progress in recent months.

On 30 May, the hosts of the 2022 Be Inspired Business Awards (BIBAs) announced that Simply Doughnuts had been shortlisted for two categories: Green Business of the Year, and Global Business of the Year.

All entrants’ submissions are scored before the shortlisting decisions are made. In her notification email, Babs Murphy, chief executive of North & West Lancashire Chamber of Commerce wrote to say that, for each category, we were “one of the top-scoring businesses who have made the shortlist.”

Green Business of the Year

Our shortlisting in this category reflects a host of new initiatives over the last year, including:

• Investing in new plant that requires less water and produces less material waste
• Diverting 100% of waste from landfill
• Reducing road miles through supply-chain and logistics improvements
• Developing new packaging that requires less plastic
• Further extensions to product shelf-life

Global Business of the Year

We made the final this year on the basis of our recent successes in developing new export markets in Europe and the Gulf States. We are now supplying a number of well-known retail chains and we’re committed to expanding our overseas markets further, throughout this year and beyond.

The BIBAs

This year’s finals will take place on 16 September at the Blackpool Tower Ballroom. More details can be found on the BIBAs website.

On Sunday 15th May 2022, we supported Muslim Hikers with a donation of doughnuts for its 130-strong group of walkers. They were climbing Cadair Idris in the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales.

The group hosts organised walks in North West England, North Wales and elsewhere, and has a steadily growing membership. It promotes diversity, physical activity and an appreciation for the great outdoors, so we were naturally pleased to help.

Athlete, mountaineer and group founder, Haroon Mota thanked us for “the delicious post-trek treats” and provided the accompanying photographs.

More photos, together with  details of the group’s forthcoming walks, can be found on its website and social media platforms. (The group’s Twitter page also includes a video of the doughnuts being handed out to the walkers as they arrive back.)

On the evening of Thursday 5 May, members of the Simply Doughnuts team attended the ‘Made in the North West Awards’ at the Lowry Hotel in Manchester.

We were finalists in the Sustainable / Ethical Manufacturer award category so we were naturally delighted when the judges announced Simply Doughnuts as the winner.

Our operations manager Evita Dambrauska took to the stage to accept the award trophy, together with PA / administration manager Fatima Raja.

Fatima thanked the judges and explained that we have always made waste minimisation a cornerstone of our operations. She explained how our products’ long shelf-lives help to minimise waste, and some of the many ways in which they can help retailers to reduce their carbon footprints.

She also noted that Simply Doughnuts was continuing to set a good example in terms of its commitment to diversity, and helping people from disadvantaged backgrounds to develop their employability skills.

Further details can be found in our previous article announcing our original shortlisting for the award.

To commemorate the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, the country’s longest-reigning monarch, we have introduced new, special edition packaging for some of our best-known products.

Pictured, for example, is the new-edition label for our popular Classic Mini Rings, temporarily re-styled as our “Jubilee Mini Rings.”

“We’ve enjoyed introducing the new Jubilee packaging,” said Simply Doughnuts managing director, Shiraz Master. “As the recipient of a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2020, we feel a definite connection with Her Majesty the Queen and we’re keen to play a part in celebrating her amazing achievement. No British monarch has reigned for longer. This is the first time in history that the country has witnessed a Platinum Jubilee, so it’s a genuine once-in-a-lifetime occasion.”

The special edition packaging should start to appear in supermarkets and other retail venues throughout May.

On 27^th April, we received notification from The Grocer Gold Awards that Simply Doughnuts had been shortlisted as a finalist in the Waste Not Want Not category.

The award celebrates companies that have made important progress in reducing waste – whether that waste takes the form of food, ingredients or other materials, or commodities such as energy and water. In all these areas, we have made great strides this year.

Amongst others, our achievements have included diverting 100% of waste from landfill, reducing waste dough, using less water, and saving energy through the use of more efficient heating and lighting systems in the factory and offices. We’ve also reduced road miles by a considerable margin and introduced new initiatives with our supply chain partners that involve using bulk reusable containers.

The entry process was rigorous. We were quizzed about our company-wide waste-reduction strategy, the thinking behind it, the actual solutions we’ve employed and how the plan was executed. We also provided a quantitative analysis of our many waste-saving efforts, and details of our plans for the future.

“We’re delighted to be a finalist in this category,” said company MD, Shiraz Master. “We’ve made big investments and we really have worked incredibly hard to cut waste very successfully across the whole company. To have those efforts recognised is really important, and all the more so because we’re in such impressive company. Other finalists include major retailers like Tesco and Iceland – companies that are pressing forward with really ambitious resource-efficiency projects of their own.”

The Grocer Gold Awards will be held on Tuesday 14^th June 2022at the Guildhall in London.

We may only be a few months into it, but 2022 is proving to be a big year for Simply Doughnuts. For example, we’ve recently opened up a number of important new export markets, including Germany and several Gulf states. And interestingly, the opportunities aren’t just restricted to major supermarkets, distributors and wholesalers.

A potentially exciting new sector for us is the cinema concessions market. We’re seeing growing interest here – and with good reason. Supplied in convenient re-closable cartons, our fresh doughnuts are low on mess, great for sharing and ideally suited to the needs of hungry movie-goers.

Commercially, too, they’re very well suited to the needs of cinema-based food retailers. As ever, their long shelf-lives are a big advantage. They minimise food-waste risks and, because they require neither refrigeration nor heating on-site, they enable retailers to make valuable savings on energy and staff time. They can be displayed at ambient conditions and require minimal preparation; making them a simple “pick up and buy” option.

Helpfully, the cartons also fit very neatly into the cup-holders that many cinema chains fit to their seating, so they could hardly be better suited to the demands of the market.

It’s a market we’re actively looking to develop so watch this space for further news.

On 31st March 2022, Insider Media announced that Simply Doughnuts had made the finals of the Made in the North West manufacturing awards 2022.

We have been shortlisted in the Sustainable / Ethical Manufacturer Award category, on the strength of our waste-saving innovations and investments, and our efforts to create training and employment opportunities for people within the region.

Insider editor Simon Keegan congratulated all the shortlisted companies and said: “Manufacturing is pivotal to the North West economy, and the region’s manufacturers remain among the most innovative and dynamic in the world.”

Responding, Simply Doughnuts’ managing director said: “I’m very pleased that we’ve been shortlisted for our efforts in terms of ethics and sustainability. These are subjects that we take extremely seriously, and we’ve made important progress in both areas over the last 12 months.

“We’ve continued our R&D efforts regarding extending shelf lives and we’re now achieving around 34 days with our improved processes. We’ve also found ways to produce less waste-water during production, to reduce in-house energy consumption, and to reduce the road-miles involved in our inbound and outbound logistics. By working with our waste management contractor, we’ve also managed to divert 100% of waste from landfill.

“On the ethical side, we’re continuing to work on publicly-funded projects that promote employability skills; we’re creating work experience placements, helping people with mock interviews and actively recruiting people through DWP schemes in order to help them get a first foot on the career ladder. We’ve also recently become members of Sedex, an organisation that helps companies to improve their performance in terms of labour rights, health & safety, the environment and business ethics.” (See separate news article.)

The Awards are now in their tenth year. The final will be held on Thursday 5th May at the Lowry Hotel in Manchester.