A Year of Awards

It’s been awards galore this year for Wales’ oldest and largest dairy co-operative South Caernarfon Creameries and we are revelling in a collection of ‘British’, ‘Global’, ‘International’, ‘World’ and ‘Best Dairy’ awards for their Welsh cheese and butter.

This year alone, the Creamery’s Welsh dairy products have received almost 30 awards bestowed from numerous high profile events such as the British Cheese Awards, World Cheese Awards, International Cheese Awards and Global Cheese Awards. The Creamery swept the board with all of their cheese varieties taking top awards including Cheddars from Mild, Mature, Extra Mature and Vintage with Leek as well as the traditional territorial cheeses Caerphilly, Double Gloucester and Red Leicester. South Caernarfon’s traditional salted Welsh butter also received several awards.

It seems most fitting that the Welsh co-operative won most awards for our greatest nationalistic cheese: Welsh Slate Cavern Aged Cheddar, developed in conjunction with Sainsburys and matured 500 feet underground at Llechwedd Slate Caverns in Blaenau Ffestiniog. As well as taking awards from the likes of the Global Cheese Awards and World Cheese Awards, at the start of the year Welsh Slate Cavern Aged Cheddar won the Best Dairy Product 2016 at the Food Management Today Industry Awards which recognised creativity, innovation and excellence in British food.

The year ended on a high with South Caernarfon Creameries taking the Made in Wales Food & Drink Award 2016 which recognises the food or drink company in Wales that has made the biggest impact in areas such as innovation, use of Welsh products, added value, and commercial success. One Judge said “They’ve moved from being a commodity producer to an innovative producer, a huge undertaking”.

Alan Wyn-Jones, Managing Director said “Awards provide an independent assessment and point of reference for the quality standards of a range and focus on taste and quality rather than elaborate packaging. The fact that such a wide cross-section of our cheeses have been recognised provides further, independent, verification that our entire range is exceptionally high quality.”

“Our focus is continuous improvement on quality and service and these awards are further evidence that we are making significant progress as we strive to be the ‘Number One choice for Welsh cheese’. The Best Dairy Product and Made in Wales Food & Drink Award go a long way to endorse our objective.”

“Many thanks go to our committed staff and member farmers for all of their hard work and dedication.”