Why enter the Scottish Retail Food & Drink Awards?

The Scottish Retail Food & Drink Awards are unique in Scotland, the result of an industry-wide collaboration of partners all committed to a single and very important goal: getting more of Scotland’s fantastic food and drink products onto more Scottish retail shelves.

The ethos behind the awards is unapologetically commercial. We aim to help grow sales for producers and retailers of all sizes across Scotland. If the products are made in Scotland and sold in Scotland, they are eligible for entry and simply by entering the Scottish Retail Food & Drink Awards you can gain enormous benefits. If you find yourself chosen as a winner, the benefits are even greater:

• Expert, relevant feedback on every entry
  Every single entry receives detailed feedback from our expert panel of judges that can help you further develop your product. This feedback covers everything from taste and appearance to packaging, compliance, price and more – and all from a panel of recognised experts including retail, wholesale, nutrition, food science and catering specialists. Think of it as free consultancy, simply for entering.

• Reach a wider audience of potential buyers
  We all know how hard it can be to get in front of the right buyer. The Scottish Retail Food & Drink Awards help showcase your products to a wide range of industry buyers from small delicatessens through convenience stores and all the way up to supermarkets. Our judging panel alone includes representatives of Spar Scotland, Co-op, Asda, The Cress Co, Waitrose and more.

• Real-world judging
  All products will be sent to the judges in their home which ensures they encounter your product in exactly the same way a consumer would. They hold the product, they open the packaging, they prepare the product following the on-pack guidelines. They can judge it in the real world and can even discover if their family & friends enjoy it too. They can spend as much time as they want with the product before writing up their notes (in privacy, away from the wider panel) and then submitting to the chair.

• Get new listings
  The ultimate goal for all products is to gain new listings and the Scottish Retail Food & Drink Awards recognise this at every step of the process. We regularly facilitate introductions for entrants and in 2021 we saw enormous success with many entrants gaining lucrative new listings with retailers.

• Raise your profile
  We work hard to publicise both the Awards and our producers through our retail title Scottish Local Retailer, our extensive social media network and our external (consumer press) PR partner. Comms are circulated to regional press but also picked up by our heavyweight consumer media partners The Times Scotland, The Sunday Times Scotland and The Scottish Sun, the biggest selling newspapers in Scotland.

• On-pack logo
  If you are selected as a finalist, or are chosen as a winner, you will receive a relevant logo that you are free to use on-pack. Research shows that consumers are 44% more likely to choose products with a quality award or marque. Use your logo on pack and in your marketing materials to drive sales and achieve differentiation in a crowded marketplace.

• It never stops
  The awards programme does not finish as soon as we announce the winners. As a team, we continue to engage with all producers – winners or not – to assist them wherever possible by helping them secure valuable trade and consumer press coverage, introducing them to buyers,  putting them in touch with packaging specialists and product developers or offering advice, support or help wherever we can.

The Scottish Retail Food & Drink Awards are much more than simply an awards ceremony. They exist to help producers gain listings in more retail stores and to expose retailers to great quality, exciting Scottish products. We will do whatever we can to keep you moving forward in our shared aim of getting more Scottish products onto more retail shelves.