Why did you enter the Wales Food and Drink Awards?
It was a great opportunity to represent Welsh butchery and compete in a hugely talented sector. The potential to participate and possibly win in the inaugural awards was too enticing not to enter.
What does winning a Wales Food and Drink Award mean to your business?
Winning this award was a huge springboard event for myself in 2022, and led on to more successes. It gave me a huge confidence boost and was great recognition to all the effort and support that goes into my career. The self belief this award gave me allowed me to compete at the World Butchers Challenge with huge confidence which in turn led to great success.
How do you strive to make a difference in the Wales Food and Drink market?
Every day I aim to promote and support the fantastic local producers that I am lucky to work with and the huge effort that goes into making Welsh food and drink produce some of the best in the world. I also aim to showcase the apprenticeship opportunities that are available to people and the potential results that these can help to achieve.
What do you see as the biggest challenge for the sector?
Labour shortages and a lack of interest in career paths within the sector are two of the biggest challenges to the sector. Hopefully through events such as this, we can showcase what the industry can offer to people and grow the interest levels. Highlighting the value that the sector can offer to people looking to move into it.
What are your goals for the next 12 months?
To build on my successes of 2022 and promote careers and apprenticeships in Wales.
What is the biggest lesson you have learned in the past year as a company?
Through hard work, planning and perseverance you can make anything possible. There will be situations that you go through where you feel you could have done better or achieved more, but if you allow yourself time to reflect on the journey you have already taken to get where you are, you can feel proud of all your achievements.
What is one piece of advice would you give to any aspiring business owner?
Planning, hard work and resilience are some of the biggest points to making a success of things. Don’t be afraid to listen and take on board advise from those around you, especially the successful ones!
What did you think of the awards ceremony?
Fantastic evening! A great opportunity to meet a huge variety of industry leaders and learn from them. A huge thank you to all the organisers, sponsors and judges who put together such a great event and highlighted the work people do within the industry.
