Some of the world’s strongest and oldest food and drink brands operate from Northamptonshire. Companies like Granovita, Carlsberg, Whitworths have chosen the county as their UK headquarters, local businesses like Weetabix and Bokomo have become world leaders, greenfield investors such as Alpro are undergoing strong growth and British Pepper & Spice who have been trading for over 300 years are based in Northamptonshire.
Northamptonshire’s location gives ease of access to both retailers and regional distribution centres, cutting transport costs and exploiting established distribution networks. The county is at the heart of “The Golden Triangle” of national logistics and regional distribution centres used by food and drink companies and food retailers such as Tesco, Coca Cola Enterprises Ltd, Morrison and ASDA.
Local colleges such as the University of Northampton are building expertise in providing specific food technology training courses, vocational skills; business and enterprise training as well as managerial and executive level business courses.
Northamptonshire also has a growing independent food and drink sector and an increasing number of successful entrepreneurs, new companies and new retailers emerging. The sector is the second most valuable within the county’s visitor economy (topped only by shopping) and forms 18% or £150m of the overall visitor expenditure and accounts for almost 3000 jobs. Prominent, successful and award winning local producers include potted beef manufacturers, Sauls of Spratton; local breweries, Frog Island and Hoggleys; and rapeseed oil manufacturers Farrington Oils.
The Northamptonshire Food & Drink Awards is an annual event celebrating the finest of the county's Food and Drink producers and eateries.
Click below to watch a video from Northamptonshire TV on the launch of this year's awards.
