Happy Egg and Aldi free range winners

Elwyn Griffiths collected the Retailer of the Year award on behalf of Aldi
Elwyn Griffiths collected the Retailer of the Year award on behalf of Aldi

An old hand at the egg business and a couple who are relatively new to free range egg farming took the Producer of the Year title in this year’s prestigious BFREPA Free Range Egg Awards.

Charlie Stephenson, a member of the BFREPA Council, has been involved in free range egg production for 21 years.

He was named Producer of the Year for those who have been in the business for more than five years. The title for newcomers - those who have been in free range egg production for between one and five years - went to John and Elin Jones from Corwen in Wales. BFREPA chairman John Retson, who announced the 2010 award winners during the association’s annual conference at Stoneleigh Park, said there had been a massive number of entrants for both categories. The standard of entrants for the title had been very high, said John. "The sad part was sending the letters out to those who did not get it."

Charlie Stephenson farms near Leeds in West Yorkshire. The heavy snow prevented him tavelling to the ceremony to receive his award, but the competition judges said that for Charlie the welfare of his hens were of the highest importance. "He spends a great deal of his time on the look-out for anything that may trouble the health of his flocks. His attention to detail is evident in the lack of disease and low mortality found in his flocks."

Charlie Stephenson has 56,000 free range layers split between six houses at Harper Farm, where he also rears 80,000 pullets a year on a multi-tier system. He was one of the early members of Freedom Food and helped to develop systems used under the Freedom Food scheme. His experience has made him a valuable member of the BFREPA Council.

Happy Eggs won the Marketing Initiative of the Year award
Happy Eggs won the Marketing Initiative of the Year award

The judges said that Charlie had lived through the problems associated with multi-age sites and was still producing excellent quality eggs from a well managed free range unit.

John Retson said that John and Elin Jones had developed a "very tidy" business in their short time in free range egg production and they had impressed the BFREPA judges with the standard they had achieved since joining the industry.

"It’s obvious that Mr Jones is a complete stockman who has taken to poultry farming with great enthusiasm and gusto, even to the extent of blending the feed deliveries together whilst changing over to a new batch of feed to ensure minimal upset to the birds," said the judges. "This has paid dividends, as the production figures show."

John and Elin Jones collected the Producer of the Year award for producers who have been producing for under 5 years
John and Elin Jones collected the Producer of the Year award for producers who have been producing for under 5 years

The birds on the Jones’ farm at Blaen Gwnodl Isaf were 72 weeks old when the judges visited, but the judges said the unit was "immaculate." The production of 320 eggs per bird with mortality as little as two per cent was the result of attention to detail and an "owner operation family attitude to the job."

The award for Marketing Initiative of the Year went to Noble Foods for the launch of its Happy Egg Co brand. John Retson said the decision this year was an obvious choice. With the launch of Happy Egg, Noble had done a massive job for free range in difficult times. "No-one will be surprised by this award."

The Happy Egg brand has so far exceeded all Noble’s expectations for the new launch. It has already established itself as the biggest brand in the egg category, selling 34 million packs so far. It now accounts for 4.8 per cent of the total egg market value and 4.7 per cent of the free range egg market value.

The brand was launched in early 2009 following the appointment of Peter Thornton as Noble chief executive. He had previously enjoyed branding success at Dairy Crest with Cathedral City cheese, and his stated aim was to replicate that success in the egg market.

Noble’s objectives were to:

• Create a signpost brand capable of growing into a recognised national brand;

• Act as the authoritative category voice, informing consumers on a variety of

topics;

• Dispel the myths that restrict egg consumption;

• Drive the conversion to higher welfare egg types;

• Assist shoppers by providing a shortcut through confused shopping experience;

• Stimulate consumption through promoting usage occasions;

• Inject personality and fun into the category;

• Deliver enhanced profitability over standard free range eggs, achieving higher average selling prices.

Its first year target was to achieve £15 million brand value. It achieved brand value of more than £21.6 million. In its second year, the brand had already achieved value of £38.5 million well before the year end. Its full year target was £33 million. Happy Egg is listed in the majority of multiples and convenience outlets and has achieved 22.6 per cent penetration. As we reported lays month, only 23 per cent of sales have been achieved through promotion.

The Retailer of the Year Award this year has gone to one of the smaller names amongst the supermarket chains – Aldi Stores. BFREPA decided to recognise Aldi for its work in completely re-branding the supermarket’s eggs.

John Retson said that Aldi had developed a new ’British packaging design on its boxes, on in-store point of sale material and on bulk shippers across 376 stores in England and Wales. He said the supermarket had also increased the number of free range product lines. It now had medium and large eggs on sale within all its stores, rather than just medium in all and large in a few. Aldi had plans to increase its free range lines further in 2012.

Aldi free range sales are up nearly 70 per cent since the launch of the new range in September, the company has invested in shelving, removed shippers and given more space to free range, as well as making use of ceiling header cards for the egg category. There is also a permanent page on their website promoting British eggs.

The BFREPA quality egg competition proved to be a clean sweep for Lohmann birds. The top three producers all have Lohmann flocks. First this year were Martyn and Emma Langford. Second was Mary Thompson. Third were John and Amanda Evans. Egg marketing inspectors who judged the eggs said that the standard was very high again this year and that selecting the top three had been a challenge.

The winner of this year’s BFREPA calendar photographic competition was Matt Orme. The competition is sponsored by Vencomatic.

The award for the best exhibition stand went to Stonegate.