Winkworth’s MD in Wonderland!

He looks like the (Cheshire) cat that got the cream – but for our Managing Director, Grant Jamieson, it was all in the line of duty.

Grant was sampling a “taste of Wonderland” at IFE, the largest gathering of international food and drink suppliers.

From big brand suppliers to local and regional producers, exhibitors from around the world took the opportunity to showcase their products at ExCel, in London’s Docklands.

Representing the Winkworth Group, Grant visited some of the 1,100 exhibitors, including the promotional stand of The Mad Hatter Tea Company, and indulged in a spot of theatricals with “Alice.”

The mantra of the Yorkshire-based company is to put the spotlight on a quality beverage that simply revives the spirit, enriches the mood and adds peppiness and cheerfulness to the substance of life.

“Job done,” according to Grant, who added: “It was a tough job, but someone had to do it!”

Winners Announced in Winkworth’s Always Mixing All Ways Award

The waiting is finally over and we are pleased to be able to announce the winner and runners-up of our 2010 Always Mixing All Ways Award.

Our competition attracted a great response and the entries revealed an accumulation of hundreds of years of Winkworth mixing expertise throughout the UK.

The overall winner of our search to find our longest-serving Winkworth mixer still in use in the UK today is a world leader in the manufacture of high voltage ceramic carbon linear resistors, HVR International Ltd, based in Jarrow, Tyne & Wear.

In September 1979, HVR International invested in a Winkworth Laboratory Z blade (LABZ) with a 10-litre working volume and it’s still in regular use for evaluating formulations and characteristics of new raw materials.

The first prize of a luxury weekend for two and a commemorative Winkworth Mixer trophy were handed over to Company Technical Director, Kevin McLaughlin by Winkworth’s Managing Director, Grant Jamieson.

Afterwards Mr McLaughlin said they were delighted to win the Award and commented: “The market is driving us to use Winkworth Z blades in order to give us control over the properties we require for production.

“I strongly feel that we have had excellent service from Winkworth over the years. They are like us in our marketplace – they believe in very good customer service.”

Four runners-up were selected to each receive restaurant meals for two. They were the following companies:

Fox’s Confectionery, of Braunstone, Leicestershire
Christeyns UK Ltd, of Bradford, West Yorkshire
CeramTec UK, of Colyton, Devon
Sylmasta UK, of Scaynes Hill, West Sussex

We were delighted with the level of interest that competing companies showed, and Grant Jamieson clocked up more than 1500 miles by personally handing over the awards and seeing the various mixers in situ.

He said: “It was inspiring and encouraging to journey the length and breadth of the country and see these Winkworth mixers still delivering unbeatable results in a variety of applications. There's no doubt that mixing in our Winkworth mixers has become a strategic component of their success. With very low whole life cost of ownership they have a compelling competitive advantage, which they continue to exploit.

“When making investments in capital equipment we recognise initial price is always a factor and often it's difficult for companies’ accounting systems to allow the 'whole life cost arguments'; however what we can see here is, those who do , are successful and here at Winkworth we're very proud to be a part of their success.”