Category: Uncategorized

In December 2024, we received a request from a member of the Booker Retail team who was planning a charity fundraising event in support of the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. We agreed to supply a quantity of our Classic Mini Rings and our Ring Bake doughnuts, which were duly delivered and used as prizes in a tombola.

The event took place in the week commencing 9th December and was a great success. One of the organisers, Laura, said that it had been extremely popular – so much so that the team managed to clear all the prizes within just two days, rather than the whole week that was originally planned.

She added that the team “got some very good feedback on the doughnuts… especially the Classic Mini Rings. Everyone seemed to really enjoy them!”

Anyone wishing to support the fundraising campaign can donate directly via a JustGiving page set up by Booker Retail.

This donation was just one of several that Simply Doughnuts has made over the course of December. We have also provided doughnuts to local food banks and to The Scottish Grocer Food Collection Campaign, which is distributing food over Christmas in association with FareShare, the UK’s largest charity fighting hunger and food waste.

Above: Blackburn Food Bank collection from the Simply Doughnuts factory. Our staff (Amirah Patel, centre, and Evita Dambrauska, right) organised the donation of Ring Bake doughnuts.

In December 2024, following a site inspection and audit , BRC Global Standards renewed its AA certification grade for Simply Doughnuts.

We have maintained this top-rated grade since 2018. Before then, we held SALSA accreditation.

Founded in the UK, BRCGS notes that its “Global Food Safety Standard has set the benchmark for nearly 25 years… (and) is the most widely accepted food safety standard in the world.

“Developed with input from industry, it provides a framework to manage product safety, integrity, legality and quality, and the operational controls for these criteria in the food and food ingredient manufacturing, processing and packing industry.”

Over recent years, BRCGS has made occasional unannounced inspection visits, on the strength of which we have also achieved the top grade. However, in such cases, the grade is shown as AA+ to indicate that the audit was not pre-arranged. Consequently, depending on the most recent inspection, we will sometimes report our grade as AA (as per December’s result) and sometimes as AA+.

In response to the award notification, our chair Mike Wilson said: “This is another fantastic achievement by the Simply Doughnuts team. It has come at the end of what has been a fabulous year for us, with so many highlights. We have also laid some great foundations that will enable us to carry on building the business next year. We’re all looking forward to the challenges and the opportunities ahead.”

We’re delighted to report that Simply Doughnuts is a finalist in the Food Manufacture Excellence Awards for 2025. We have been shortlisted in the ‘Manufacturer of the Year’ category.

The judges’ announcement follows an award submission earlier in the year, and an interview with the company directors, who told the judging panel more about our efforts and progress over the last year. Briefly, key achievements have included:

• Sales growth in both our UK and export markets
• The successful roll-out of our Ring Bake Doughnuts
• R&D to enable the Ring Bakes to be refrigerated without hardening, enabling their use in ‘meal deals’
• Continuing investment in spares and additional capacity
• Further year-on-year waste reductions
• Retention of our AA+ rating by BRC Global Standards

The full list of finalists can be seen on the FMEA website.

The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony itself, which will take place on Thursday 6^th February at the London Hilton Bankside.

We were contacted recently by St Gabriel’s CE Primary School in Blackburn. Its year 6 pupils were planning to put on a school production, which would also include activities to raise funds for microphone headsets, lighting, and building a new school garden.

We were happy to help and duly supplied some of our Ring Bake doughnuts to help with the children’s efforts. These were sold and used as raffle prizes, helping the school towards its target.

Quite often, we receive messages and kind reviews from customers who tell us that they’ve enjoyed our doughnuts, but it’s not so often that people tell us where they’ve been enjoying them.

But this week, we got an email from Nathan, who told us that he’d packed one of our Strawberry Jam Ring Bakes for a recent kayaking trip to Windermere. He wrote to say that the Strawberry flavoured Ring Bakes were his favourite, and he even sent us a couple of pictures. (Thanks very much, Nathan. We’re really glad you had a good time.)

We always love to get customer feedback, so if you’ve taken our doughnuts on an unusual trip or adventure, please do let us know.

We are pleased to announce that Simply Doughnuts has been named as a regional finalist in the Make UK Manufacturing Awards 2024.

We made the shortlist in the Innovation category, based on our efforts to extend the shelf-lives of fresh doughnuts. Since our formation in 2012, we have been working to produce longer-lasting products that reduce food waste and minimise the associated commercial risks faced by retailers.

The winners will be announced at the regional awards dinner, which will take place on the evening of Thursday, 24 October at Crow Wood Hotel & Spa Resort in Burnley.