SPUD-TASTIC! Potato company Branston wins major award for its liveries
ITS SPUD-TASTIC! The potato people at Branston Ltd are all celebrating after the company scooped a top national award for its eye-catching lorry liveries
The UKs leading potato supplier which transports thousands of tonnes of potatoes every week for Tesco won Livery of the Year at the Motor Transport Awards 2011 the transport industry Oscars held in London. Judges praised Branstons clever designs saying: We need more humour just like this in the transport industry!
Branstons series of 14 individual and original liveries, which triumphed against tough competition from including Spar UK and Grocontinental, are becoming increasingly familiar across the country.
The Motor Transport Awards are the biggest awards event in the road transport diary, with over 1,300 industry movers and shakers gathering together to recognise the achievements of the very best companies in the sector.
Simon Telfer, HR and logistics director at Branston, received the award on behalf of the company. He said: It was brilliant to receive the award especially as we were up against such stiff competition.
Branstons account director Jo Parish said: Our aim is to put potatoes at the forefront of peoples minds. We put a great deal of thought into our liveries and are very proud of them. We invite staff and business partners to come up with ideas and we consider them all, no matter how quirky!
We wanted our liveries to be eye-catching and fun as well as educational. We have a number of different designs and are brimming with ideas for new liveries in the future so watch this space!
The liveries were created to attract the attention of a younger audience but it turned out that adults like them too. We get lots of comments from drivers and members of the public who write and email in to say how much they love them. Our lorry drivers say that people wave, toot, and even take photographs of them!
As well as Tate That! a design developed to coincide with Take Thats reunion tour of 2011, Branstons other liveries include Youre the one that I want – Potatoes with the X-factor! and Im a potato get me out of here!
About Branston Ltd
Branston Ltd was set up as a co-operative of Lincolnshire farmers in 1968. The company grew and became a limited company. Today, Branston is privately-owned and one of the UKs biggest potato buyers, packers and distributors turning over 110 million in 2008.
Branston has sites in Lincolnshire, Somerset and Scotland. Across the UK, the company employs more than 600 people, with over 300 at its Lincoln site. In 1990, Branston began working with Tesco and is now one of the supermarkets top fresh produce suppliers. Branston branched out into prepared vegetables in 2005 and opened its own 4 million prepared foods factory in 2009. Branston was the first food producer in the country to receive the Carbon Trust Standard in recognition of its environmental initiatives, which have resulted in a reduction in its carbon intensity over a three year period. In 2010, Branston opened its anaerobic digestion plant that turns waste potatoes into electricity, part of a 2 million investment in green technologies at its Lincoln site.