Notable hat-trick of awards for Mackie’s
It was a case of “three-in-a-row” for the worthy winner of the 2007 Business Gateway International Award for exporting innovative products, presented at the seventeenth Grampian Food Forum Innovation Awards dinner in Aberdeen on 14 March.
As in 2005 and 2006, the winner was Aberdeenshire ice-cream producer Mackie’s of Scotland Ltd, an enterprising farm-based company which has already made remarkable inroads into the Asian ice-cream market.
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| Managing director Mac Mackie (left) receives the firm's award from judge Ken McMeikan, retail director with supermarket chain Sainsbury’s |
In recent years, Mackie’s has hit the headlines in the food world by exporting its high-quality ice-cream to 35 specialist ice cream parlours in prime retail locations all over Seoul and the surrounding area. The spectacular deal was originally brokered to coincide with the 2002 World Cup, and sees the farm-made ice-cream shipped for an epic 35 days round the globe before reaching the appreciative Korean palates.
The 2007 Grampian Food Forum export award has been made in recognition of the company’s further inroads into the Korean market, brought about by developing specially-packed branded ice-creams for the Asian supermarket sector.
“Although our ice-cream booths have performed very well in the last five years, the potential in Asian supermarkets is absolutely colossal, so our first agreement with Costco in Seoul is genuinely ground-breaking,” reports Karin Hayhow, marketing director with Mackie’s of Scotland.
“We had to develop special new two-litre organic packs for the tropical market, but retaining all the elements of Mackie’s original branding – Korean consumers are very big on the quality Scottish angle and on healthy, natural ingredients.”
At the same time, the company has appointed its first International Export Manager with an eye to exploiting other overseas markets.
“We are also absolutely delighted to retain our Grampian Food Forum award for another year,” confirms Karin. “Our Korean partners value business awards very highly, and our latest success will undoubtedly help us consolidate our market entry.”
Successful agricultural diversification
This recent award underlines Mackie’s status as a highly progressive international luxury food producer, and one of the most successful Scottish examples of diversification out of traditional farming dependency into agriculture-related production.
Mackie’s now employs over 70 staff, mostly locals in the rural community of Westertown, near Inverurie. The old farm buildings and a mill have been converted into a modern, state-of-the-art ice-cream dairy that was recently trebled in its output capacity to 6000 litres per hour.
One of the company’s key assets is its herd of over 500 prime Jersey and Holstein-Friesian dairy cattle, the largest of its type in the UK. The enterprise is one of the most modern dairy farms in Europe, milked by nine robots, the largest voluntary access milking unit in Europe, which revolutionises management and needs only three people to run the herd.
The BGI-sponsored export award was one of sixteen made at the annual Grampian Food Forum Innovation Award dinner, which is now in its seventeenth year. Widely regarded as the best regional food awards in the UK , the awards were launched to foster the north-east's proud tradition of innovative food production. Mackie’s also picked up a prize for “best retail product for a company with over 25 employees” for an exciting new iced fruit smoothie product – something which should also prove popular in Korea.
The 2007 Grampian Food Forum awards were judged by a panel chaired by Ken McMeikan, retail director with supermarket chain Sainsbury’s, and also including Ronald McDonald, general manager of Craig Group Foodservice, and Natalie Minnis, editor of “Scottish Grocer”.
The 2007 awards are sponsored by Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council, Anderson's Packaging (Aberdeen) Ltd, Business Gateway International, HIE Moray, Highland Cuisine, Johnston Carmichael, Marcliffe Hotel and Spa, Moray Council, the Press and Journal, Rowett Research Institute, and Scottish Enterprise Grampian.
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