Lanark-based biscuit manufacturer, Border has scooped two gongs at the annual Scottish Food & Drink Excellence Awards in Edinburgh - ‘Business of the Year’ and ‘Brand Success of the Year’.
Following its rebrand in 2016, Border has gone from strength to strength by harnessing the popularity of its family of ‘Biscuitiers’ resulting in the brand becoming the number one special treat in Scotland, as well as rising up the ranks to 16th place in the Scottish Grocer’s list of the biggest food brands in Scotland.
Border’s ever popular ginger biscuits are also the number one best-selling ginger biscuits in the UK, outselling more than twice that of all the own label varieties added together.
Aiming to replicate its success in Scotland across the UK, Border has secured over 1800 new distribution points since the campaign in supermarkets including Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Co-op and Waitrose.
The Business of the Year category, which was sponsored by Clydesdale Bank, is a special award chosen by the judges from all of the businesses that entered categories across the awards. The biscuit brand also beat off stiff competition from Plant and Grow Ltd and Tomatin Distillery to win the Brand Success of the Year Award, which was sponsored by Palletforce.
Described as the Oscars of the country’s food and drink industry, the Scotland Food & Drink Excellence awards aim to recognise businesses and individuals leading the way with innovation, enterprise and quality. This year, they received a record-breaking number of entries with over 270 nominations across the categories.
Lesley Ann Gray, Brand and Innovation Director at Border, said, “It’s a real privilege to be named Brand Success of the Year at the Scottish Food & Drink Excellence Awards and to be chosen by the judges as Business of the Year is absolutely amazing!
“This offers fantastic recognition for the whole team at Border. Since our rebrand, we’ve really enjoyed sharing the story of our family of Biscuitiers with consumers while growing our footprint across Scotland and the UK. We have big plans to invest further in the brand and we’re looking forward to another exciting year ahead.”
Pictured left to right: host Simon Rimmer; Lesley Ann Gray, Brand and Innovation Director at Border; Mark Bruce, Sales and Marketing Director at Border and Simon Kerr, ?Regional Head of Corporate and Structured Finance at Clydesdale Bank.
With a turnover of £16.5m, Border ranks at number 14 in the top 20 sweet biscuits in the UK.
Last year, Border scooped the top Bakery accolade for its Dark Chocolate Ginger & Orange biscuit at The Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards, which were attended by 800 guests last week (7th June 2018) at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.