Snack firm wins HGCA development award
Snack firm wins HGCA development award
PRETZEL maker Union Snack has received £30,000 from the Home-Grown Cereal Authority to develop its products as a healthy alternative in the adult snack food sector.
The award, made earlier this week, was the biggest single payout in the 1998 Enterprise Awards, sponsored by the HGCA, the Meat and Livestock Commission and Food from Britain.
A total of £230,000 was on offer, funded by the HGCA grower levy, to act as pump priming cash for the development of new products using British cereals.
Big winners
Other big winners chosen by the judges include Greenwich-based Amylum UK, which received two awards – £19,500 to develop and launch a new food sweetener from wheat, replacing beet and sugar cane, and £27,500 to launch a nutritional protein substitute made from wheat gluten for use in fish farms. Egg producers Deans Farms of Herts, and Framptons of Somerset, each received £25,000. The former is launching a range of healthy eating products, the latter is promoting cooked egg products to the fast food, travel and in-store catering sectors.
Range of goods
A wide range of goods was represented by a dozen other companies. Payouts ranged from £5000 to £12,500.
"If all the projects are carried through, they will result in 25,000t of extra sales for cereals," said Tony Pike, HGCA chairman.
Ben Gill, NFU president, handed out the cheques.
"Each single case here may seem only a small drop in the total cereal market.
"But it is these niche markets we need to develop – they have real added-value potential. I look forward to future ideas and developments – they certainly seem to be bristling within the allied trades." *
Snack attack – (from left) FFBchairman, Geoffrey John, HGCA chairman, Tony Pike, NFU president, Ben Gill, and Union Snacks George Wilkie at this weeks HGCA Enterprise Awards.