FDF award winners
Shaheed Gul Khattak from Mondeléz International has scooped the Apprentice of the Year Award at the prestigious Food and Drink Federation (FDF) Awards. Mars UK employee Dennis O’Shea was named ‘Community Champion’, Thorntons, the Derbyshire-based chocolate company, won the Education Initiative award and Reading-based dairy free confectionery producer Moo Free scooped the coveted Growth Business award for the South West.
The ceremony, which was held at London’s The Brewery, celebrated businesses across the food and drink industry. Sponsored by Aktrion Food & Drink, the Food and Drink Apprentice of the Year award commends individuals that have made an extraordinary contribution to the food and drink industry. This is the second year running that an employee from the Birmingham-based company has won the award.
Shaheed Gul Khattak was presented with the award for his commitment to tackling every project and task to the highest standard possible and with great enthusiasm, passion and professionalism.
Having worked at the Slough-based Mars UK for over 20 years and having lived in Slough all of his life, Dennis O’Shea is just as committed to supporting the local community as Mars is. Dennis believes strongly in the value of playing team sports to boost confidence and cohesion within the Slough community.
Driven by its employees’ passion for chocolate, Thorntons sees education as an important way of engaging the public and enhancing the Thorntons brand. The impact on the business has been significant: the programme now welcomes approximately 3,000 visitors a year. Employees have described a positive impact on their personal development and local schools are benefiting from innovative educational activities.
In the Growth Business award category sponsored by Grant Thornton UK LLP, the judges looked for companies that could demonstrate growth through increased sales, capacity and resource expansion or the development of new and innovative product lines.
Husband and wife team Mike and Andrea Jessop launched Moo Free in 2010 with the aim of becoming the world’s favourite and leading brand of dairy free chocolates. Supplying multiple customer bases including wholesalers, retailers, distributors and supermarkets, Moo Free has grown from only being stocked in Waitrose 18 months ago, to now being sold in six additional supermarket chains around the world.