Top Award for Around Noon

Around Noon in Newry has won a top award at the Henderson Wholesale Local Supplier of the Year awards announced during a special ceremony at the Balmoral Show.

 The company was awarded the Best Direct to Store Supplier, in recognition of the extensive range of products they supply for the Henderson Group brand.

Around Noon makes ‘hand-held food for people on the move’; sandwiches, wraps, salads and snacks. The company began trading with Henderson Wholesale in 2013 and in any given month, will deliver over 100,000 units to Henderson’s 400+ company-owned and independent stores.

Renowned Agricultural journalist and member of the independent judging panel for the awards, Richard Wright, attended the ceremony and presented Philip Morgan from Around Noon with the award. Also in attendance was Stevan Millar, Head of Agri-Food Support Services within the Department of Agriculture, Environment & Rural Affairs (DAERA) who spoke of the importance of growing our local agri-food industry.

Now in their fourth year, the prestigious awards scheme allows the Henderson Group, who owns the SPAR and EUROSPAR franchises in Northern Ireland to recognise the outstanding efforts of local supply companies their Wholesale business is developing fresh and ambient ranges with.

Joining Richard Wright on the judging panel this year, were some of the most respected names in agri-food and business including Head of Food Technology Development at CAFRE, Joy Alexander, Chairperson of the UFU’s Rural Affairs Committee, Freda Magill and Ulster Business editor, David Elliott.

Neal Kelly, Fresh Foods Director at Henderson Group said; “We had an outstanding level of entries for the fourth year of our awards and we’re hugely grateful to both our local suppliers and panel of judges for embracing this initiative each year.

“Around Noon demonstrated a high level of commitment to innovation and awareness of our brand, retailers and consumers to go forward to win the Best Direct to Store Supplier award. They are a key supplier to our stores and we are confident our relationship will only grow stronger to create even better products for our shoppers.”

“I wish to congratulate every one of our shortlisted, winning and highly commended local suppliers as we simply couldn’t provide the fresh and local range at the value we do for our shoppers without them.”