St Austell Brewery, proudly representing the South West, has been named as the UK's best manufacturer at the Insider Media Made in the UK Awards 2017, after a historic year for the Cornish business.
Major investment and the landmark acquisition of Bath Ales helped drive growth across 2016 for the Brewery, best known for its flagship Tribute Cornish pale ale and Proper Job and Korev brands, bringing with it recognition from all industry quarters including Best Regional Brewer and Business of the Year accolades.
Nominated for and winning two awards at the regional Insider Made in the South West awards last year meant the Brewery was automatically nominated for the national finals in the two winning categories; sustainable manufacturer and the main award, manufacturer of the year (over £25m).
The national awards event, bringing together all the regional winners from the past 12 months, was held at the Titanic Hotel in Liverpool in association with the Department for International Trade. Thriving manufacturers from across the country, including Jaguar Land Rover and Laila's Fine Foods, were among those to pick up trophies on the night, which celebrated the most innovative and dynamic companies in the sector, with the main UK manufacturer of the year award being picked up by St Austell Brewery.
Delighted to be able to add the prestigious award to the company’s ever-lengthening list of prizes, Brewery CEO James Staughton said, “2016 was an incredibly important year for us and for the efforts of everyone within the company to be recognised at such a high level is truly rewarding. The fact that the Insider Media awards celebrate excellence across the business sector as a whole make this an even more important accolade for us and we are proud to be helping to put the South West firmly back on the UK manufacturing map.”
Shortlisted for the main award alongside St Austell Brewery were CA Group, one of the UK’s leading metal roofing manufacturers, representing the North East; South East winners, sportscar transmission engineers Xtrac; SPTS Technologies, specialists in etch and thermal equipment for the semiconductor industry from Wales; poultry and game suppliers LJ Fairburn & Son from the Midlands and Yorkshire based caravan and motorhome manufacturer, Swift Group. WEC Group, one of the UK’s largest engineering and fabrication companies represented the North West, while car parts manufacturer Montupet UK represented Northern Ireland on the night.
Picking out St Austell Brewery as winners at the Liverpool awards event, the judges were impressed by the company’s contract wins, notably with British Airways, which show the company looking for growth through new market entry points. Also highlighted was the company’s acquisition of Bath Ales last year alongside plans to double the existing brewing capacity at its Warmley site.
Miri Thomas, editorial director at Insider Media, said that manufacturers were "showing outstanding resilience and agility" despite the turbulent economic times. The event, in association with the Department for International Trade, was sponsored by GIL Investments, M&M Communications, auditors group RSM and law firm Weightmans and is the fourth annual manufacturing awards night hosted by Insider Media, the UK’s most successful regional B2B company with a nationwide network of regional news emails boasting 140,000 subscribers.