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NEWS AND AWARDS

"All in all, it was a great evening to kick off the Christmas period" restaurant review from the Chorley Guardian newspaper Saturday 10 December 2011

Huntley’s arrived in the top 3 for farm shop of the year 2011 nationally!

We have entered the Butcher's Shop of the Year Awards which is renowned as the premier event for the UK farm shop sector. They recognise excellence in craft butchery/retail and winners enter an exclusive group representing the crème de la crème of British butchery/retail. We have been informed this week that we are through to the finals! The award night is November when we will find out if we have won. The competition covers butcher’s/farm shops around the country, with the winner in each region going head to head to see which one is declared the best farm shop in the UK.

Barrica Wines have been shortlisted as Regional Merchant of the Year for Northern England in the INTERNATIONAL WINE CHALLENGE. The final decision is announced at a grand awards ceremony at the Hilton in Park Lane on 7th September

Lancashire Wine Merchant wins UK Independent Wine Retailer of the Year.

Success is definitely in the air for Lancashire based independent wine merchant Barrica Wines, based at Huntleys Farm in Samlesbury, near Preston.

In February they were awarded the coveted title of UK Independent Wine Retailer of the Year. Barrica were shortlisted, with 2 other wine retailers - based in Kensington, London and Cambridgeshire - in the category of ‘Independent Wine Retailer’ in the highly prestigious Drinks Retailing Awards.

The winner was announced at the Drinks Retailing Awards Ceremony, held at The Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, London last night - 2nd February 2010. The fact that Barrica Wines was only founded in 2008 makes this an even more starting achievement! Barrica Wines is owned by wine enthusiast Jane Cuthbertson, who was there with a team of 12 last night to receive the award from wine expert Olly Smith.

Barrica Wines focuses on finding every day and fine wines from smaller vineyards, not widely available on the high street. All their wines must offer superb quality and value for money. Barrica Wines has grown rapidly and now has a range of over 700 wines - from £5 to £200, which have been sourced worldwide and have all been personally tasted and selected by Jane.

Jane’s category was sponsored by Wines of Argentina and as part of the award Jane will now be flying to Argentina on 20th February, as the guest of Wines of Argentina, to spend a week visiting vineyards and attending the Argentina Wine awards.

Despite being so young Barrica Wines are not totally new to awards ceremonies. In 2009 Barrica Wines were a finalist in the ‘Independent Wine Merchant Award’ organised by the New Zealand Wine Growers Association. Jane said “The last 2 years have been the busiest of my life. We have worked so hard to build Barrica to what it is today and to have won such a prestigious national award recognised so soon is quite amazing! I would like to personally say a really big thank you to all our customers whose support and enthusiasm has helped us build Barrica to the success it is today”.

Last night was a great night for North West businesses. Booths Supermarket was also named UK Multiple Beer Retailer of the Year.

2009 Cumbria floods

"A big thank you to all the customers of Huntleys who donated food and toys for the people up in Cumbria affected by the floods back in November 2009".

Andrew Robinson North Lakes Foodbank

The North Lakes Foodbank has distributed emergency food boxes to over 400 households affected by the floods in Cockermouth, Workington, Ulverston, Keswick and Penrith. The Foodbank is here to help anyone in crisis. We have also recently been able to help many older residents in the area who were unable to get out and go shopping during the very icy weather. Our work is ongoing and we rely on donations of tinned and dried food to enable the Foodbank to continue to help people. Many thanks for your support.

Eddie and Cate Cowpe pictured, are the owners of Huntley’s and they personally took all of the goods up to a building in Cumbria, that is comparable to the size of our Food Hall! Within this building they have made and sectioned it, so that all of the high street shops have been moved into there so they can still trade whilst their shops are being refurbished from the flooding.


LATEST TOURISM AWARD FOR HUNTLEY'S

Matthew Wilson WON on Thursday 12th November 2009, ‘Most Outstanding Young Tourism Manager in the ‘Lancashire Excellence in Tourism Skills Awards’ (aka LETS awards) in conjunction with Lancashire and Blackpool Tourist Board. Matt was up against some fierce competition from Stanley House and The Lancaster House Hotel! We are so very proud of Matt and wish him all the best in his ever improving career path!

The evening was hosted by Tupele Dorgu (better known as Kelly from Corrie!) and Paul Nicolas (also better known as Vince in Just good Friends!).

There were ten categories over the evening, Excellence in Customer Service, Best New Entrant to the Industry, Unsung Hero (behind the scenes workers), Matt’s category Most Outstanding Young Tourism Manager, Lancashire Young Chef of the Year, Most Valuable Volunteer, Outstanding Learner Award, Best Practice in Training and Career Development, Commitment to the Industry and last but not least, Tourism Team of the Year.

So watch this space, Huntley’s will be entering quite a few of these categories next year, we could end up with not enough space on the website to showcase all of our trophy pics!

If you think that we have something more to offer than another venue, then why not write in to let us know what you think, you can email us or write directly to us (see the Contact Us page for details), we would love to hear from you!

Matthew Wilson  With his Most Outstanding Young Tourism Manager award
Matthew Wilson With his Most Outstanding Young Tourism Manager award.
Matt With Tupele at the Lancashire Excellence in Tourism Skills Awards
Matt With Tupele at the Lancashire Excellence in Tourism Skills Awards
Eddie and Matt with the awardEddie in martial art pose
Eddie and Matt with the award and Eddie in martial art pose

 

Lisa Jackson won the Advanced Apprentice of the Year award; Lisa is now our new Food Hall Manager moving from the position of Restaurant Manager and is undertaking Hospitality and Catering Advanced Apprenticeship. This is the third year running that North Lancs Training Group has taken one of their Advanced Apprentices to the National Finals; no pressure on Lisa or her Training Officer Donna as the last two Advanced Apprentices won the National award too!

Right Lisa Jackson and Eddie Cowpe at the Awards 19th May 2009

Well Done Lisa!!!!

Lisa Jackson and Eddie Cowpe at the Awards 19th May 2009

Lisa Jackson – Restaurant Manager won Tourism Manager of the Year at the Lancashire Excellence in Tourism Skills hosted by Lancashire and Blackpool Tourist Board in November 2008.

Lancashire Evening Telegraph Awards – Lisa Jackson – Highly Commended in Employee of the Year in November 2008.

Right Lisa with our Restaurant Assistant Manager Matt Wilson


Best Rural Retailer - Best Diversification (North West), December 2007 best rural retailer logo

lancashire and blackpool tourist board logoLETS Award Winner - Tourism Team of the Year, November 2007

Huntley's were very proud winners of Tourism Team of the Year at this year's Lancashire Excellence in Tourism Skills Awards (LETS), sponsored by the Lancashire and Blackpool Tourist Board.

Ten awards were handed out during a glittering ceremony at the Paramount Imperial Hotel in Blackpool on 22nd November 2007.

The award was presented to Eddie Cowpe (Managing Director) and Lisa Jackson (Restaurant Manager) by the guest presenter and Cleveleys born actress Hayley Tamaddon, who played Delilah Dingle in ITV’s Emmerdale and has appeared in The Royal and Where the Heart Is.

Lancashire and Blackpool Tourist Board leads on skills and training in the tourism industry for the whole of the North West. The tourist board’s chief executive Mike Wilkinson said:

"New capital investment in tourism is always welcome but we should never underestimate the importance of people in delivering great customer care and using their skills productively. Being a well funded attraction or hotel is absolutely pointless in the long run unless you have good staff, especially as customers have so many choices nowadays.

"While we still have some way to go in Lancashire, these awards show once again we can deliver world class service here. Everyone who entered this year’s awards deserves to be praised. They are true ambassadors for our industry and I wish them well for the future."

James Berresford, director of tourism at the Northwest Regional Development Agency said:

"A well trained and skilled workforce is fundamental to the success of any business, in the tourism industry perhaps more so than anywhere else. Talented staff play a huge role in the quality of the visitor experience, and to ensure service of the highest quality it is vital that we continue to invest in them. Tonight’s winners demonstrate the professionalism that we already have within the industry. I hope that their success will be an inspiration to others."

 

East Lancashire Retailer of the Year 2005

“Huntley’s have come through foot-and-mouth and gone from strength-to-strength which is very impressive. The diversity of what they have and the quality of their product is special, you don’t see that anywhere. They are succeeding and catering to people’s needs and this award is very well deserved.”

Lancashire Evening Telegraph


10 Top Ten UK Farm Shop’s

“Huntley’s deserves its place alone for its full butchery, with home-reared meat.”

BBC Good Food Magazine


10 UK Motorway Stop-offs by The Times

“A working organic farm shop, with butchery, fruit and veg shop, and a restaurant selling cream teas and lunches. Children will love more than 70 flavours of home-made ice cream.”

The Times


“Don’t miss Huntley’s of Samlesbury for a place to shop whilst in the North West.”

The Sunday Times North West Review


Awarded ‘Food Hero’ status by Rick Stein

“Huntley’s are famed for their ice cream – an astonishing 70 flavours or so, made with milk and cream from the farm’s own dairy herd, and often home-grown fruit. There’s plenty more at this farm shop too.”

Rick Stein’s Food Heroes of Britain