It was another successful night for us at this year's BFFF annual awards at the Hilton Park Lane. We were delighted to collect Gold for our Mediterranean Vegetable Lasagne supplied to JD Wetherspoon in the Best New Meat-Free/Vegetarian Category, followed by Silver for Best New Multi-Portioned Product with our Smoky Paprika Double Bone Beef Rib.
KK Fine Foods is proud to announce that it has been chosen as one of the 1000 companies to inspire Britain for 2017. Created by London Stock Exchange Group, 1000 Companies to Inspire Britain is an annual celebration of some of the fastest-growing and most dynamic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK.
In order to be selected as part of this impressive report, criteria requires firms to have out-performed their sector peers, highlighting KK Fine Foods as one of the market leading family owned food manufacturing companies in the UK.
To honour this fantastic achievement, KK Fine Foods’ Leyla Edwards (founder and CEO) and Samir Edwards (Managing Director), were invited to celebrate the publication. This fantastic day included the Market Opening Ceremony and breakfast reception at London Stock Exchange Group headquarters followed by a special reception at 10 Downing Street.
We’ve just returned back from a fantastic five day food innovation and concept tour to one of the most exciting and vibrant dining scenes in the world….Chicago.
As official sponsors of this year’s Midas awards and members of the Menu Innovation Network we spent our time there experiencing some of the latest cutting edge concepts that this great city has to offer.
Delegates from the leading group operators, pub chains and casual dining groups in the UK joined us for a trip to the annual National Restaurant Association exhibition.
In addition to some behind the scenes visits to a number of downtown restaurants we also managed to find the time attend a presentation on the latest US food trends.
The trip was a huge success and has certainly given us some fresh and exciting ideas for some new menu items and serving suggestions that will help keep our valued customers ahead of the trend.
Photo: Leyla Edwards (CEO) & Graham Jackson (Chairman) collecting the award for Manufacturer of the Year presented by Iwan Trefor Jones (North Wales Economic Ambition Board)
Insider Wales North Wales Business Leaders Awards is the first and only business awards dedicated to the whole of North Wales, celebrating the achievements of companies, entrepreneurs and business professionals.
This year’s awards were announced at an exciting ceremony at Venue Cymru where 29 Welsh companies were shortlisted for 11 awards.
On winning the Manufacturer of the Year Leyla Edwards (CEO of KK Fine Foods) said:
"It’s fantastic to be recognised for our achievements and this is a great accolade for the business which wouldn’t have been made possible without the continued hard work of the whole team here at KK."
The Prime Minister hosted a special reception to celebrate International Women’s Day at Downing Street earlier this month.
We are very proud to say that KK Fine Foods founder and CEO Leyla Edwards was invited to go to Downing Street on this special day, as a way of recognising her hugely successful achievements.
KK Fine Foods was established in Leyla’s kitchen in 1987, a busy mother of three young children she harnessed her passion for food and saw a gap in the market for excellent quality, innovative food solutions. Over the last 30 years, Leyla has grown KK Fine Foods to become a market leader in high quality frozen ready meal solutions, building a 120,000 sq ft factory and providing over 320 jobs to the local community. KK Fine Food’s has won numerous awards for its high levels of quality and innovation and now supplies many high street restaurant chains and national retailers.
Prime Minister Theresa May said:
“I am pleased to be hosting a reception in Downing Street today to celebrate International Women’s Day. In every sphere - be it sport, music, industry or the charitable sector – we see people working hard to create opportunities for other women and for the next generation as well."
"I’m proud of the progress that we have made so far - we have more women on the boards of our biggest companies, more women in parliament, the lowest gender pay gap on record and we have more women in work than ever before. But there is always more to do to drive out inequality and give everyone the opportunity to go as far as their talents will take them – regardless of their gender. And I am confident in the knowledge that every woman and man here today will be playing their part in making this happen.”
Leyla Edwards, CEO of KK Fine Foods said:
“It is a great honour to be invited to the 10 Downing Street reception to celebrate International Women`s Day and share this occasion with so many inspirational women. International Woman's Day is an occasion where we can show that by steel determination and hard work we can break all barriers and overcome any obstacle to achieving our goals. This is an opportunity to thank all those women who have managed to inspire a generation of young women in their communities. Today all over the world we have many examples of such great women who have shaped our lives and our Prime Minster is a great example of that.”
Winner Jameson Robinson for JD Wetherspoon (Collected by Oliver Addis) with Paul Chittenden (right) from KK Fine Foods
We are pleased to announce our new sponsorship partnership for 2017 with the Menu Innovation Network.
As part of this a number of our team attended the Menu Innovation Forum on Thursday 9th March at The Cumberland Hotel in Central London to showcase some of our fantastic new recipes to a captive audience of leading companies and delegates from the casual dining sector of the UK foodservice market.
The day was a huge success and it was a great opportunity to meet and greet some of our existing clients and also start to develop some new relationships that may lead to more business for us in this rapidly growing sector.
The event culminated, late in the evening, with the presentation of the Midas Awards hosted by Nigel Barden from BBC Radio 2. A team of mystery diners and judges with considerable menu development experience had been tasked with deciding the winner in each of the 31 categories.
KK sponsored the award for The Best Pub Dining Club which was deservedly won by Jameson Robinson of JD Wetherspoon. Congratulations must also go out to June Marriott from Greene King for Hungry Horse and Graeme Warwick from Stonegate Pub Company for Yates who were also nominated in this category.
The winner and a representative from KK will take part in the Menu Innovation Network’s tour of Chicago in May 2017. The five day tour includes entry to the world’s largest foodservice event, presentation on the latest US food trends, behind the scene visits to leading Chicago restaurants and a invaluable chance to network with all of the key menu development chefs from the biggest and best UK operators.
BFFF ANNUAL AWARDS 2016
The BFFF Annual Awards is now in its twenty-ninth year and is the definitive awards for the frozen food industry. The results were announced at the Gala Dinner Dance on Thursday 9th June and we were delighted to receive 5 awards!
GOLD AWARD: BEST NEW MEAT FREE/VEGETARIAN PRODUCT
For Thai Edamame Bean Burger/Sriracha Burger
GOLD AWARD: BEST NEW VEGETABLE-BASED PRODUCT
For Mushroom, Cranberry & Brie Wellington
BRONZE AWARD: BEST NEW MEAT FREE/VEGETARIAN PRODUCT
For Aubergine, Butternut Squash, Greek Style Feta & Pomegranate Moussaka
BRONZE AWARD: BEST NEW MULTI-PORTION PRODUCT
For Korean Shredded Chicken
BRONZE AWARD: BEST NEW MEAT-BASED PRODUCT
For Wild Boar Cracker with Red Wine Sauce
The whole team at KK Fine Foods are delighted with the results, highlighting our ongoing commitment to creating innovative, highly quality products with award winning flavours.
The Daily Post’s Business Awards 2015 aims to find the most innovative companies and talented people in the region, recognising companies that have excelled over the last 12 months and are helping to drive the economy forward.
Over 100 businesses located throughout North Wales entered into the 21st Daily Post’s Business Awards and an awards night took place at Bangor University. It was fantastic to see so many thriving businesses from North Wales being recognised for their achievements.
We are extremely pleased to say that KK Fine Foods won the PwC BUSINESS OF THE YEAR (50+ staff) Award!
This is a huge achievement which wouldn’t have been possible without the continued hard work of the whole team here at KK.
A fantastic end to what has been a record breaking year for us at KK – Bring on 2016!
KK Fine Foods is creating 100 new jobs on Deeside Enterprise Zone due to another major expansion project.
The £833,000 investment is due to the company winning new contracts with key customers, and will create new freezing facilities and cooking lines as well as new equipment and IT control systems to increase productivity and efficiency.
Chairman Dr Graham Jackson said: “This latest expansion is part of our strategic long-term growth plans and it will enable us to meet the growing demand from some of our key customers and we anticipate it will increase our turnover to £40m within three years."
Chief executive Leyla Edwards, who founded the business in 1987 in her own kitchen, said: “KK Fine Foods’ profile has increased considerably after winning a string of awards at this year’s British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF) Gala Dinner.
“These awards, combined with our ongoing investment in the business and high quality innovative range of recipes and dishes, is a winning combination and has resulted in significant new orders from our customers.
Managing director Samir Edwards is driving sales forward with a young and dedicated team of new product development chefs who are aware of the ever changing trends in food consumption based on global innovation.”
This years prestigious BFFF Gala Dinner saw KK Fine Foods Plc awarded The Catering Product Of The Year 2015 for it's Korean Spicy Vegetable Curry. KK was also awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze awards:
CATERING PRODUCT OF THE YEAR 2015
for Korean Spicy Vegetable Curry
GOLD: BEST NEW MEAT FREE/VEGETARIAN PRODUCT
for Korean Spicy Vegetable Curry
SILVER: BEST NEW MULTI-PORTION PRODUCT
for Slow Cooked Roasted Shredded Pork
BRONZE: BEST NEW MEAT FREE/VEGETARIAN PRODUCT
for Pumpkin, Kale & Sweet Red Onion Tart
Managing Director, Samir Edwards said “We had an amazing evening and these awards demonstrate our commitment as a business to continually deliver quality, innovative and great tasting products to our valued customers”
Things were getting spicy at KK recently with a visit by 2013 Masterchef finalist Saira Hamilton. She spent a very productive and enjoyable two days working alongside our very own development chefs to create some exciting new ideas for our customers.
Since appearing on the prime time BBC One cookery competition, Saira has made the journey from enthusiastic amateur to professional chef. Now running her own catering business, Small Aubergine, specialising in Fine Bengali Food.
You can see pics from the visit by following us on Twitter@KKchefs
Having had consecutive years of growth, KK Fine foods has now commenced on an expansion for its production facility, both to cope with current demand and to future proof the factory.
As well as creating more production capacity both for ready meals and protein cooking there has been heavy investment in specialist equipment to supplement the sous vide operation.
“The sous vide process is becoming even more popular with our customers” says Samir Edwards, "so this investment is a vital part of the expansion and we are looking forward to further developing our product range in this area".
KK Fine Foods are proud to be sponsoring Greasby Under-14's for the coming season.
Kicking off with a pre-season friendly in their new KK sponsored kit featuring our shiny new logo, FC GREASBY came in with a 4-2 win!!
The KK team are always on the lookout for the best recipes and ingredients from all corners of the globe.
We are pleased to be offering a variety of the world’s finest flavours with the arrival some new product ranges from Korean to Peruvian there is something to tantalise everyone’s taste buds!
For more information email: info@kkfinefoods.com
KK is delighted to announce that Samir Edwards (formally Commercial Director) has been appointed as Managing Director.
With over 12 years within the family business, Samir started in sales and has worked in almost every department. With factory expansion plans and a number of projects in the pipeline, Samir says he is “excited and optimistic about the challenges ahead”.
Leyla Edwards founder and former Managing Director remains a key part of the business as CEO.
