Ice-cream producer scoops food awards galore
It was a case of déjà vu for the worthy winner of the 2006 Business Gateway International Award for exporting innovative products, presented at the sixteenth Grampian Food Forum Innovation Awards dinner in Aberdeen on 15 March.
As in 2005, 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.
The 2006 award was made to the company for its new “Scottish Purity” brand, which has been carefully designed to act as a launch pad from its core South Korean business into other Asian markets.
“Since we initially broke into South Korea in 2002, our Korean partners have established a new company, Mackie’s of Asia, from which to target key Asian markets including Japan,” reports Karin Hayhow, marketing director with Mackie’s of Scotland.
“They have capitalised very successfully on the positive Korean demand for a fresh, natural ice-cream from Scotland, and now have 30 Mackie’s ice-cream parlours established in prime retail locations all over Seoul and other South Korean cities.”
“But in-depth market research in key Asian markets revealed that, although the product was very highly rated in both organic and traditional formats, the packaging and branding were not achieving sufficient differentiation from multinational competitors.
“So we went back to first principles and designed a new emblem brand called ‘Scottish Purity’, which will shortly go into full production for all the Korean outlets.”
Successful agricultural diversification
This recent award (one of four picked up by the company at the 2006 ceremony) 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 can produce up to 10 million litres of ice-cream each year.
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. Jersey dairy products are traditionally highly rated for their creamy taste, and shipments of prime Scottish Purity ice-cream will spend around 36 days at sea in temperature-controlled containers before delighting discerning Asian palates.
The BGI-sponsored export award was one of sixteen made at the annual Grampian Food Forum Innovation Award dinner, which is now in its sixteenth 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.
The 2006 awards were judged by a panel chaired by Bruno Deschamps, chairman of Brakes, the leading supplier of frozen, chilled and grocery products to the catering industry. Fellow judges were Claire Smith, Sales Director for CJ Lang, Julian Hunt, editor of “the Grocer”, and Ceri Ritchie of the Scottish Agrilcultural College.
The awards, organised by Grampian Food Forum, are co-sponsored by Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City and Moray Councils; Sea Fish Industry Authority, Anderson’s Packaging (Aberdeen) Ltd, The Press and Journal, The Marcliffe Hotel and Spa, Business Gateway International, Johnston Carmichael, Leap (Scotland) Ltd, Rowett Research Institute, Highland Cuisine, HIE Moray, Scottish Food and Drink and Scottish Enterprise Grampian.
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