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Diversity and Inclusion Award 2023

On the evening of 22nd March 2023, Simply Doughnuts was named the winner of the Diversity & Inclusion Award category in the annual Business Champion Awards.

The event took place at East Wintergarden at Canary Wharf in London.

To reach the finals, every business had submitted a detailed entry and then made a formal presentation to a panel of judges, followed by a question and answer session. The standard of entries was reportedly extremely high, so we were delighted to be acknowledged in this way.

The award recognised our efforts to create employment, training and work experience opportunities for people from all sections of the community, including individuals who might be considered to be disadvantaged or under-represented in the world of work. In this, we work with publicly funded employability programmes, local training bodies and organisations working in the voluntary and charitable sectors.

We were also a finalist in the Innovation Award category and impressed judges with details of our recent work to improve product shelf lives from 30 to 42 days.

Business Champion Awards 2023

 

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Sharing Our Experience of Trade Missions

As many customers may know, we recently took part in a trade mission to the Gulfood Exhibition in Dubai. It was an exciting opportunity for us to meet new clients and other contacts, and to invite visitors to sample our products.

As with our previous visits to the Gulf States, we received invaluable help from what was formerly the Department for International Trade and is now operating as the Department for Business and Trade. When they asked us to record a short video to record our thoughts on the experience of taking part in a trade mission, we were happy to help. In it, we share some ideas of how best to prepare and how British companies can make the most of trade visits while they are out there.

Below are some pictures from our visit.Gulfood 2023Gulfood exhibition hall DubaiVisitors testing Simply Doughnuts products

Simply Doughnuts products on the UK display
‘Pride of Place.’ Simply Doughnuts products on the Great Britain and Northern Ireland display stand.

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Export Award Winner

On Thursday 9 February, judges at the 2023 Food Manufacture Excellence Awards announced Simply Doughnuts as the winner of the Export Award.

The event, which was held at the London Hilton Bankside, attracted food industry businesses from across Britain and featured a total of 17 categories.

Naming Simply Doughnuts as the winner in the Export Award, judges commented on our success in moving into new markets in the Middle East, and the effectiveness of our research and planning.

We were also shortlisted as a finalist in the Ambient Manufacturing Company of the Year Award. Other finalists in various categories included such well-known brands as Birds Eye, Princes, Charlie Bigham’s and Nestlé.Award winners on stageTrophy - winner of the Export Award at the Food Manufacture Excellence Awards 2023

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Gulfood Exhibition, Dubai

We’ve been working closely with the Department of International Trade over recent months. We’ve already taken part in two missions to the Gulf States, starting with a trip to Qatar in June 2022. At the time, we visited as part of a trade delegation supported by DIT’s Great British Food Programme.

We’ve been making rapid progress, developing relationships with large, well-established retailers and, as a result, our products are being stocked in an ever-growing number of outlets across the Middle East.

Keen to maintain the momentum, we’re now making final preparations for another DIT-supported mission; this time to the #Gulfood Exhibition, a major international event that will take place in Dubai between 20th and 24th February.  It should be an excellent opportunity to meet potential distributors and stockists, and to explain the benefits of long shelf-life products to a new and exciting market.

Simply Doughnuts managing director, Shiraz Master said: “The support we’ve had from DIT has been invaluable. DIT staff have helped us to understand the regulatory landscape, to make really important new contacts and to develop our local presence through trade missions and one-to-one meetings with retailers, wholesalers and ordinary consumers.

“We’ve been very well supported in the UK and by DIT staff overseas. In Kuwait, for example, a DIT advisor spent most of the day with us even though it was her day off. She even fed us! The level of support and the willingness to go the extra mile has been amazing.”

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Business Champion Awards 2023

Simply Doughnuts has been shortlisted as a finalist in the 2023 Business Champion Awards, in two categories: the Innovation Award and the Diversity and Inclusion Award.

Our nomination for the Innovation category was based on our continuing efforts to extend product shelf lives with a view to minimising food waste and retailers’ losses. It also highlighted ongoing improvements in our own operations, which have been re-engineered to minimise the use of energy and water, and to divert 100% of our company’s waste from landfill.

In addition, our entry noted our new product development record which, in 2022, included the introduction of a new vegan range, a new long-life doughnut glaze and new vanilla flavours for the export market.

Our Diversity and Inclusion entry focused on our work with publicly funded employability and training programmes, and with local training agencies, through which we have created career opportunities for people from a broad range of backgrounds. It also detailed our support for numerous community projects and multicultural events.

Awards Director Richard Alvin said “Competition was of a high standard, with over 800 entries, and our shortlisting judges have been blown away by the strength, determination and resilience of the entrants during one of the toughest periods in business.”

The full list of categories can be seen here: Business Champion Awards.

The awards evening will take place on 22nd March 2023, at Canary Wharf in London.

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Hiking Group Donation

On Christmas Day 2022, we supported Muslim Hikers with a donation of doughnuts for a party of 200 walkers, who ascended Mar Tor in the Peak District.

This was the second time in 2022 that we had assisted the group, which promotes diversity, physical activity and an appreciation for the great outdoors. The previous occasion was an organised walk in May, when around 130 of its members scaled Cadair Idris in the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales.

Group founder, Haroon Mota wrote to us later that day to say: “We had a great day in the Peaks. Just wanted to say a massive thank you for looking after us. The doughnuts went down a treat.”

More photos can be found on Muslim Hikers’ social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Walkers with their doughnuts and coffee

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Finalist: Food Manufacture Excellence Awards

Just a few days after hearing that we’d made the finals of the International Trade Awards, we also received news that Simply Doughnuts had been shortlisted for two award categories in the 2023 Food Manufacture Excellence Awards.

We are one of the contenders for the Export Award and for the title of ‘Ambient Manufacturing Company of the Year.’ The full list of finalists can be seen here.

The 2023 awards ceremony will take place at the London Hilton Bankside on Thursday 9th February.Ambient Manufacturing Company of the Year Finalist

Export Award Finalist

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Finalist: International Trade Awards

On 7th November, Insider Media Ltd announced the finalists in various categories of its 2022 North West International Trade Awards. Simply Doughnuts made the shortlist in two categories:

  • The Emerging Exporter Award (sponsored by the Department for International Trade); and
  • The Growth in New Markets Award

The awards evening itself will be held at The Lowry Hotel on December 1.

The organisers note: “Insider’s annual event celebrates exporters from across the North West. From emerging exporters to international giants, innovators and new markets will be recognised.

This year includes new categories, with judges having spent two days meeting companies to devise a worthy shortlist… The event will showcase the achievements of the pioneers, the innovators, and the global success stories.”

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Reducing Energy Costs In-Store

Although waste-reduction is perhaps the most obvious commercial benefit of stocking products with longer shelf-lives, our doughnuts offer another saving that is especially important today. That is to say, they are transported and displayed at ambient temperatures, so they don’t require retailers to freeze or refrigerate them – and that, in turn, means an important energy saving.

Energy costs have rocketed since the invasion of Ukraine, becoming one of the most powerful and pervasive forces now driving global inflation. For most large retailers, the single largest source of energy consumption is typically their freezers and refrigerators, which can account for between a third and a half all of all electrical power consumed.

Ambient products therefore offer an obvious advantage, in that they don’t require that energy to be used in the first place. If a retailer switches from frozen to longer-lasting ambient products, it may be able to operate with fewer freezers overall, which would reduce energy consumption and deliver better profits with greater cost certainty.

In addition, stocking ambient products with a long shelf-life simplifies operations and yields savings on staff time. In the case of Simply Doughnuts products, they can be placed immediately on the retail shelf with no intermediate stages. Staff therefore don’t have to spend time moving them into freezers, then subsequently defrosting them, putting them out for display and maintaining stock control records at each stage.

This twofold saving is especially important at a time when energy prices are so high. And, of course, energy savings also make an important contribution to the industry’s net zero ambitions.

Our continuing research into extended shelf-lives is another example of the efforts we’re making to cut costs and to protect our retail clients from avoidable price rises.

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Minimising Fuel Costs in the Supply Chain

Fuel costs have been extremely volatile since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and, with no clear end to the conflict in sight, we’re doing all we can do minimise journeys and the consequent costs of fuel.

This is important to our retail clients. The better we can insulate ourselves against the rising cost of diesel and petrol, the more we can protect our customers against cost-driven price increases. We have been achieving this in a number of ways.

First, we are continuing to streamline our supply chain network, prioritising local suppliers and buying in bulk wherever possible. This yields immediate savings on road miles. For example, by buying our flour from Stockport (in our native North West) rather than from London, we have reduced one-way road journeys by over 130 miles. Similarly, by sourcing cardboard from Burnley rather than the Midlands, we save over 80 miles per trip. We have applied the same principle to many other commodities: jam, cooking oil, packaging, label printing etc.

Road-mile reductions are obviously the most effective way to reduce fuel costs, so we have also investigated other ways to achieve this. We have chosen to work with just a single logistics partner rather than with multiple regional haulage companies and this has enabled us, and our chosen supplier, to plan journeys much more efficiently. Round trips, sometimes calling in on more than one supplier, have further reduced the distances our materials have to travel, and virtually eliminated journeys on which vehicles travel empty.

It’s also important to note that our doughnuts can be transported at ambient temperatures in ordinary trucks, which are lighter and considerably more fuel-efficient than refrigerated lorries. Moreover, because the products last much longer than ordinary doughnuts, they also require fewer regular deliveries. These factors also help to reduce fuel consumption and help use to keep our costs down.

Finally, of course, these various steps and product characteristics aren’t just good news from a cost perspective; they also help us – and the retailers we serve – to make progress towards our respective net zero targets.

For more information about the steps we’re taking to improve resource efficiency throughout our operations, please see our Sustainability in Action page.