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Finalist: International Trade Awards

On 7th November, Insider Media Ltd announced the finalists in various categories of its 2022 North West International Trade Awards. Simply Doughnuts made the shortlist in two categories:

  • The Emerging Exporter Award (sponsored by the Department for International Trade); and
  • The Growth in New Markets Award

The awards evening itself will be held at The Lowry Hotel on December 1.

The organisers note: “Insider’s annual event celebrates exporters from across the North West. From emerging exporters to international giants, innovators and new markets will be recognised.

This year includes new categories, with judges having spent two days meeting companies to devise a worthy shortlist… The event will showcase the achievements of the pioneers, the innovators, and the global success stories.”

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Reducing Energy Costs In-Store

Although waste-reduction is perhaps the most obvious commercial benefit of stocking products with longer shelf-lives, our doughnuts offer another saving that is especially important today. That is to say, they are transported and displayed at ambient temperatures, so they don’t require retailers to freeze or refrigerate them – and that, in turn, means an important energy saving.

Energy costs have rocketed since the invasion of Ukraine, becoming one of the most powerful and pervasive forces now driving global inflation. For most large retailers, the single largest source of energy consumption is typically their freezers and refrigerators, which can account for between a third and a half all of all electrical power consumed.

Ambient products therefore offer an obvious advantage, in that they don’t require that energy to be used in the first place. If a retailer switches from frozen to longer-lasting ambient products, it may be able to operate with fewer freezers overall, which would reduce energy consumption and deliver better profits with greater cost certainty.

In addition, stocking ambient products with a long shelf-life simplifies operations and yields savings on staff time. In the case of Simply Doughnuts products, they can be placed immediately on the retail shelf with no intermediate stages. Staff therefore don’t have to spend time moving them into freezers, then subsequently defrosting them, putting them out for display and maintaining stock control records at each stage.

This twofold saving is especially important at a time when energy prices are so high. And, of course, energy savings also make an important contribution to the industry’s net zero ambitions.

Our continuing research into extended shelf-lives is another example of the efforts we’re making to cut costs and to protect our retail clients from avoidable price rises.

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Minimising Fuel Costs in the Supply Chain

Fuel costs have been extremely volatile since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and, with no clear end to the conflict in sight, we’re doing all we can do minimise journeys and the consequent costs of fuel.

This is important to our retail clients. The better we can insulate ourselves against the rising cost of diesel and petrol, the more we can protect our customers against cost-driven price increases. We have been achieving this in a number of ways.

First, we are continuing to streamline our supply chain network, prioritising local suppliers and buying in bulk wherever possible. This yields immediate savings on road miles. For example, by buying our flour from Stockport (in our native North West) rather than from London, we have reduced one-way road journeys by over 130 miles. Similarly, by sourcing cardboard from Burnley rather than the Midlands, we save over 80 miles per trip. We have applied the same principle to many other commodities: jam, cooking oil, packaging, label printing etc.

Road-mile reductions are obviously the most effective way to reduce fuel costs, so we have also investigated other ways to achieve this. We have chosen to work with just a single logistics partner rather than with multiple regional haulage companies and this has enabled us, and our chosen supplier, to plan journeys much more efficiently. Round trips, sometimes calling in on more than one supplier, have further reduced the distances our materials have to travel, and virtually eliminated journeys on which vehicles travel empty.

It’s also important to note that our doughnuts can be transported at ambient temperatures in ordinary trucks, which are lighter and considerably more fuel-efficient than refrigerated lorries. Moreover, because the products last much longer than ordinary doughnuts, they also require fewer regular deliveries. These factors also help to reduce fuel consumption and help use to keep our costs down.

Finally, of course, these various steps and product characteristics aren’t just good news from a cost perspective; they also help us – and the retailers we serve – to make progress towards our respective net zero targets.

For more information about the steps we’re taking to improve resource efficiency throughout our operations, please see our Sustainability in Action page.

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The Grocer New Product Awards

Simply Doughnuts has been shortlisted as a finalist in The Grocer New Product Awards 2022, in the Cakes and Biscuits category. We secured our place in the finals on the strength of our new Vanilla Flavour Mini Doughnuts, which we launched this year.

The Grocer Awards are one of the industry’s most respected accolades and, in the finals, we will find ourselves in impressive company. In our category alone, we’ll be competing with such names as McVitie’s and Mr Kipling, while other big-brand finalists include Heinz, Birds Eye, Weetabix, St Pierre, Hovis, Cadbury and Ferrero Rocher.

“I’m really pleased that we made it to the finals,” said Simply Doughnuts MD, Shiraz Master. “Regardless of whether or not we win, it’s important to be seen alongside such well-known brands. It’s great for market recognition and it always helps to boost our profile in the eyes of potential stockists and buyers.

“It also means that we’re currently in the running for three national awards this year: this one with The Grocer, plus the Food & Drink Federation Awards and the 2022 Baking industry Awards. With all that and two shortlistings in the regional BIBA awards, it’s proving to be an exciting year.”

The full list of finalists for The Grocer New Product Awards can be seen here.

The awards evening will take place on Tuesday 15 November 2022 at the Hilton Bankside, London.

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Baking Industry Awards – Finalist

We are pleased to announce that Simply Doughnuts has been shortlisted as a finalist in the 2022 Baking industry Awards, under the ‘Sustainable Initiative of the Year’  category.

The full list of categories, with links to all named finalists, can be found here on the BIA website. The ‘Sustainable Initiative of the Year’ award is sponsored by macphie.

Commenting on our nomination, which referred to our company-wide waste-reduction efforts, the judges noted that we had been able to report “strong figures and impressive results.”

The results will be announced at the Awards dinner, which will be held at the Royal Lancaster London on Thursday 20th October 2022.

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Food & Drink Federation Awards

In early July, the Food and Drink Federation  announced the nominees for the FDF Awards 2022, which it notes, “celebrate exceptional talent, excellence and innovation in the food and drink industry.”

Simply Doughnuts has been shortlisted for two categories: the Business Resilience Award, and the Product Innovation Award.

Our nomination under the Resilience category was based on our response to the challenges of the Covid pandemic and the ways in which retailers’ needs and priorities have changed. The long shelf-lives of our products played an important role in reducing retailers’ waste-related risks during the various lockdowns. At the same time, we were busy investing in new equipment to increase production capacity while simultaneously reducing waste and achieving greater energy efficiencies.

Our nomination under the Product Innovation category was based on our development of new flavours – particularly for our growing export markets – and our work to extend shelf-lives even further, from 30 days to around 34 days.

Hosted by celebrity restaurant critic Jay Rayner, the FDF Awards will take place on Thursday 15 September 2022 at The Royal Lancaster Hotel in London. The winners will be announced then.

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Making the BIBAs Finals

We previously announced that we had been shortlisted for the interview stage of the 2022 Be Inspired Business Awards (BIBAs). We were shortlisted for two categories: the Global Business of the Year, and the Green Business of the Year.

We can now announce that we made it through that stage and are now officially a finalist in both categories.

The interview stage entailed giving a 20 minute presentation, followed by a 35 minute Q&A session in which the judges asked detailed questions about various elements of our presentations.

The winners of each category will be announced at the awards evening itself, which will take place on 16 September at the Blackpool Tower Ballroom. More details can be found on the BIBAs website.

BIBAs finalist 2022

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Doughnuts in the News

In September last year, our collaborative project with Bobby’s Foods won the product Launch of the Year category in the 2021 Retail Industry Awards. The original news item can be read here.

In the months that have followed, our work together has gone from strength to strength. In 2021, the award was given for the Classic Mini Rings but, since then, we and Bobby’s have introduced the Apple & Raspberry Jam-filled doughnut. This has also been a big hit, as the company reported in a recent press release.

A news article about the launch appeared in Forecourt Trader magazine on 1st June. It can be read here.

In it, Bobby’s notes that “these perfect little doughnuts, packed in a neat plastic cup, are perfect for convenience retailers and on-the-go consumers.”

The company’s national sales manager John Lucas, added: “We very quickly established that any retailer who sold Mini Ring Doughnuts in their store saw solid incremental sales in their ‘food to go’ section. We are looking forward to seeing the outcome that this fantastic new addition will bring them.”

The Apple & Raspberry Jam doughnuts are sold in cartons of five.

Bobby’s Foods specialises in supplying local stores and other outlets, including convenience stores, forecourts, newsagents, off licences, holiday parks, universities, theme parks, pubs and hotels. More information can be found at www.bobbysfoods.co.uk/where-to-buy.

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Tesco 2022 Business Update Event

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.

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Celebrating the Jubilee

On Saturday 4 June, Blackburn Youth Zone held a special Open Family Fun Day to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

To help the festivities along, Simply Doughnuts donated 70 cartons of fresh doughnuts. All proceeds from the sales went to support the work of Blackburn Youth Zone, which provides facilities and services for young people aged 5-25.

Posting after the event on social media, organisers said “We would like to say a special THANK YOU to Simply Doughnuts for donating the doughnuts for our Jubilee Family Fun Day! We appreciate it and the doughnuts were super yummy!

“We were delighted to support the event,” said Simply Doughnuts MD, Shiraz Master. “Our organisations have a lot in common besides being based in Blackburn. We both support the local community, we both won Queen’s Awards in 2020, and we both wanted to support something fun and memorable for the Jubilee.”

The event was a great success and saw a huge turnout. Photographic highlights can be seen here on YouTube.

Visitors to the Jubilee Family Day