Butcombe, the West Country’s fastest growing Brewery, was recently up against stiff national competition as a finalist in the ‘Boxwood Award for Business Transformation’, part of the 2012 IGD* Food Industry Awards. A David against the Goliaths of industry, as the other short-listed companies in the category were: Boots UK, Kraft Foods, Marks and Spencer and Tesco. The local Brewery’s competition entry focused on its recent success in building sales and distribution in the supermarket and off-licence side of the business.
The other finalists entries included, The Boots.com supply chain programme, set up to transform the service offer to shoppers and to drive growth. Kraft Foods ‘Destination One’ was the transformation programme that integrated the Kraft Foods and Cadbury businesses in the UK and Ireland. The Marks and Spencer Foundation Business Programme is the largest change programme ever delivered across the organisation and Tesco Connect is a web portal designed to share forecast information and insight providing suppliers with access to orders up to three weeks in advance. Kraft Foods won the category.
Guy Newell, Butcombe Brewery’s Managing Director said: “When we saw the kind of companies we were short-listed against, we were very proud of our small team to have made it to the final, and I congratulate Kraft Foods on their win. Our budgets may be substantially smaller than others in our category, but we intend to come back even stronger next year.”
Nick Everitt, IGD’s director of retail insight and award judge said: “The judging criteria means that size doesn’t matter – you can be big or small to enter the award. And the quality of all the entrants was very high.
“Butcombe Brewery did really well to get short-listed. I was particularly impressed with its clear and simple strategy, as well as the very effective engagement with multiple retailers.”
The past eighteen months has seen a remarkable transformation for Butcombe and it has grown its branded distribution and rate of sale to a point where it is now ranked 24th in the UK and 11th in Wales and West in terms of retail sales. Growing at a remarkable 153%, Butcombe is now the fastest growing major brewery in the UK in the off-trade. (Top 30 suppliers)
Martin Holland, Off-Trade Director, Butcombe Brewery says: “The fact that Butcombe was short-listed for this prestigious award, competing with multi-national corporations is a testament to the hard work, skill and dedication of everyone in our team”.
For further information visit www.butcombe.com or follow Butcombe Brewery on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Butcombe-Brewery Twitter: ButcombeBrewery
Linkedin: UK Bottled Ale Group
