Food and drink innovation centre The Food WorksSW has announced Well Fruited as the winner of its exciting and unique competition that ran between 11th March and 1st April 2023. The duo behind the drinks brand, Alex Williams (based in London but originally from Weston-super-Mare) and Ben Kaye (based in Wiltshire), will receive a prize worth £3,000, which includes five days’ free use of a state-of-the-art development kitchen, up to five days of technical support and a year’s free business membership.
The duo said: “We’re over the moon to have won this fantastic opportunity, which will provide invaluable support to our business. Until now, our products have all been developed in our kitchens at home, and we’ve sold our products locally at markets to get customer feedback. We’re looking forward to using the state-of-the-art equipment in The Drinks Kitchen and gaining experience in product development to further hone our flavours and improve our production methods. We’re really aiming to get as much benefit as possible from the experience and the expertise available to us at the centre.”
The competition saw 13 entries from businesses and individuals from across the UK. It was judged on Tuesday 4th April by an esteemed panel of experts consisting of the President of the Guild of Food Writers and author of the cookbook ‘Two’s Company: Simple’ Orlando Murrin, journalist Martin Hesp, and the centre’s New Product Development and Innovation Manager, Zoe Plant.
Orlando Murrin said: “This was one of the most interesting competitions I have had the honour of judging, with so many entries showing flair and creativity. Whittling it down to a winner and two runners-up was a truly nail-biting challenge, and I’m looking forward to seeing the resulting products popping up in shops in the future.”
The runners-up included Jaz Sky, owner of Jivee, a Weston-super-Mare-based business that uses sea moss as a main ingredient to make jellies, fruit cider vinegar and sports drinks. Another runner-up was Gregory Davies, co-founder of Auntie’s, an Indian-inspired condiments company from Coventry. Both received two days’ free use of a development kitchen, two days of technical support and a year’s free business membership.
Due to the high calibre of entries, The Food WorksSW also offered a year’s free business membership to Roly’s Fudge (Devon), Love Bug Foods (Shropshire), Eversfield Organic (Devon), Veg Life (Worcestershire) and Habits That Heal (Bristol).
Zoe Plant, New Product Development and Innovation Manager at The Food WorksSW, said: “I thoroughly enjoyed judging the entries and was delighted to see such a wide variety of ideas put forward. I’m very much looking forward to working closely with the passionate pair behind Well Fruited during their free five-day trial to help them develop their products further.”
The only centre of its kind in the south west, The Food WorksSW is based in the heart of the Weston-super-Mare Enterprise Area, less than 30 minutes from Bristol, and is in close proximity to Junction 21 of the M5 motorway. It has state-of-the-art facilities including five product development kitchens which are available for flexible short-term contract hire for food and drink businesses of all sizes to test, develop and manufacture their products.
For more information about The Food WorksSW, visit foodworks-sw.co.uk, or to stay up-to-date follow @foodworks_sw on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
