Anne Jones, from Cumbrian food producer and renowned family business, Hawkshead Relish, travelled to Manchester to attend The North West Federation of Small Businesses’ (FSB) Celebrating Small Business Awards 2019, on Thursday 31st January.

During lunch at The Hilton, Manchester Deansgate, Anne discovered that Hawkshead Relish had successfully beaten off stiff competition from Kendal Nutricare Ltd and Sheetpiling UK, to win through in the Business and Product Innovation Award category.

Hundreds of businesses from across the North West entered the 11 award categories; including Employer of the Year, Family Business of the Year, Young Entrepreneur of the Year and Start-Up Business of the Year.

Now in their second year, the annual awards are the leading celebration of small businesses and help to shine a light on some of the most innovative and determined small businesses from across the UK.

As category winners, Hawkshead Relish, will now go on to represent the North West in the national finals, which will be held in London later this year.

But that’s not all on the same day the team also discovered that they had been presented with two highly commended awards in the annual Food Management Today Magazine Awards, held at the Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington.

The Cumbrian food producer achieved highly commended status in the Best New Product Development award category for Hawkshead Relish Black Garlic Pickle and highly commended status in the Best Free From Product award category for Hawkshead Relish Black Garlic Pickle.

Maria Whitehead, MBE, co-owner of Hawkshead Relish, added: “Awards like these showcase our team’s total commitment to excellence. We are extremely proud of what we have achieved together, and we are thrilled that once more we have had the opportunity to showcase both our business and our home the Lake District to as wide an audience as possible. Now all we have to do is see if we can win through in the FSB national finals later in the year and bring back more awards for Cumbria.’’