Lostwithiel’s Trewithen Dairy has won a prestigious national food & drink gold award as the SME (small to medium sized enterprises) Brand of the Year. The Grocer magazine is the UK food and drink industry ‘bible’ and their Gold Awards celebrate the very best in the country and the awards themselves are a momentous event in the business calendar. Trewithen Dairy received its gold award, beating off stiff competition from successful top UK and international brands such as Nakd, Charlie Bigham’s, PROPERCORN, Lily’s Kitchen and HECK, at a ceremony at London’s Guildhall earlier this week.
This brand recognition comes at a momentous time for the Lostwithiel based dairy, as it was also the only Cornish company to be shortlisted in the design effectiveness category alongside international brands and successfully securing a silver award in the esteemed 2015 Food and Beverage (FAB) Design Effectiveness Awards in May 2015. The company was also awarded with a special accolade on behalf of the Royal Cornwall Agricultural Association at the Royal Cornwall Show 2015, for its committed contribution to the Cornish dairy industry and the Royal Cornwall Agricultural Society and won the Product Marketing Award category in the Food & Farming Awards 2015.
Created by leading Cornish design and communications agencies, Absolute and Excess Energy, the initial brand was launched in the June of 2011 at the Royal Cornwall Show. Since then the Trewithen Dairy rebrand has been consolidated across all the company’s stable of products including Cornish clotted cream, milk, creams, butters and yoghurts, bringing together cohesive illustration, styling and tone of voice everywhere in the ‘Trewithen World.’ New product designs with fresh and vibrant colours, a defined and fitting personality, shelf standout and the opportunity to tell lots of stories – both on pack and via the company’s innovative and responsive digital ‘fields’ - have been continually created. The brand was also run out across all of the Trewithen vehicles in 2014, with eye-popping colours, humorous straplines and copy raising smiles across the South West as the delivery team get their dairy deliciousness to all their customers.
The heritage and traditional Cornish location of the dairy and its farms is now evident in each and every Trewithen product, as is the quality and value of the experience. The effort and commitment that goes into caring for Trewithen’s Cornish cows is continually demonstrated and indeed forms the company’s strapline across all brand opportunities. In the last three years, Trewithen has added significantly to its sales, gaining new hospitality and retail customers right across Cornwall and the South West, as well as a number of supermarket listings.
Commercial Director Francis Clarke has led the rebrand process and says, “Whilst evolving our brand, it was vital that the results reflected our spirit and attitude as a Cornish company as well as completely suiting our top quality products. The strength of the resultant fitting, fun and quirky brand design has driven all of our ongoing integrated communications and business success. Elements like our social media platforms and our tweeting cow ‘Trewdy’, our brightly branded vehicles and tankers as well as our stand out products on the shelf that make us so instantly recognisable and constantly bring brilliant feedback from our customers.”
Francis continues, “Integral to our success is our strong ethic of teamwork and the brand reflects the hard graft that our employees put in every day. As with all of our work, we are delighted to be supported by the top talent in Cornwall and the brand and design work from Truro’s Absolute and the PR and digital communications from Newquay’s Excess Energy have been real drivers for us. We’re also continually grateful for the hard work that our farmers consistently put in to bring us our great products for our fantastic and loyal customers. Going forward, we’ll also be developing some new fresh and exciting products, so watch this space.”
Helen Stephens, Creative Director at Absolute, says, “This is phenomenal industry recognition for the Trewithen Dairy team. We have been absolutely honoured to work alongside Francis and the team, and Excess Energy Communications, to create and help drive the company’s brand and strategic communications. Trewithen Dairy is an exemplar of a company who really understands the power of an invested brand and these major awards, as well as the company’s commercial success, are testament to the refreshing attitude and commitment at the core of this brilliant Cornish company.”
