Simply Doughnuts wins national export award

Blackburn-based food manufacturer Simply Doughnuts has been named as the winner of the Export Award in the 2023 Food Manufacture Excellence Awards. The event, held at the London Hilton Bankside, attracted food industry businesses from across Britain and featured a total of 17 categories.

Judges congratulated the company on its success in moving into new markets in the Middle East, and the effectiveness of its strategy, research and planning.

Simply Doughnuts’ managing director Shiraz Master collected the award and said afterwards: “Simply Doughnuts has previously won awards for innovation, sustainability and ethics but this is the first time that we’ve been recognised for our export successes. 2022 was a very good year for us; it was the year that we first started to engage seriously with overseas retailers. Since then, we’ve seen great results. We’ve signed deals with agents and a major hypermarket, and our doughnuts are now being sold in numerous states across the Gulf, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and others.

“We’ve had great support from the Department of International Trade, who enabled us to take part in a series of trade missions. It was partly on the strength of those that we were able to build such good strategic relationships so quickly.

“Looking ahead to 2023 and beyond, some of those distributor relationships look like they could also open up some other very promising export markets in Europe and North America. It’s a very exciting time.”

The awards are hosted by Food Manufacture magazine. Its editor, Rod Addy noted that they “recognise excellence across the UK food and drink manufacturing industry,” and that all winners had been scrutinised by “the most comprehensive, rigorous and reputable judging process in the industry.”

This was not the first time that Simply Doughnuts had won a Food Manufacture Excellence award. In 2021, it was named Bakery Manufacturing Company of the Year. Other recent awards have included a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2020, the ‘Team of the Year’ title in the 2021 Baking Industry Awards and ‘Sustainable / Ethical Manufacturer of the Year’ in the 2022 Made in the North West Awards.