PRESS RELEASE

EXCELLENCE IN MARKETING AWARD SUCCESS FOR CHARLIE BIGHAM'S 

Premium food brand, Charlie Bigham’s, has been presented with the prestigious Excellence in Marketing Award by CIM's (Chartered Institute of Marketing) Food, Drink and Agriculture group.

Celebrated for its strong brand identity and core values, Charlie Bigham’s was chosen for its success within the ready meals category, challenger mentality and unique market offering. 

The shortlist was judged by CIM’s Food, Drink and Agriculture committee against a set criterion that included company culture and employee development, showing a track record of change and innovation and having an original, creative approach.

Well known for its delicious, quality meals, Charlie Bigham’s was in good company as an award winner with previous trophies given to Pink Lady® apples, Green & Blacks chocolate, Taylors of Harrogate, Fever-Tree, the Happy Egg Company and Gressingham Foods.

Stephanie Case, marketing director, and Rupert Willday, head of food from Charlie Bigham’s were presented with the award by guest speaker and director general of the National Farmers Union, Terry Jones, at the 14^th President’s Dinner.

Over 76 guests from the worldwide agriculture food supply chain attended the event at the House of Lords to see the Charlie Bigham’s team collect the award.

Patrick Cairns, CEO at Charlie Bigham’s comments:

“We are delighted that Charlie Bigham’s should be recognised by the CIM Food and Drink Group. We see it as a real celebration of the strength of the Charlie Bigham’s brand, our company culture and what we stand for: Giving consumers delicious food - which is convenient, but doesn’t compromise on quality.”

Mark Dodds, chair of the CIM FDA group, comments:

“The competition is always strong and to be considered for the CIM FDA Excellence in Marketing Award, a business needs to be delivering a great product using a combination of talent, innovation and above all excellence in marketing to deliver tangible results. Many congratulations to Charlie Bigham’s for winning this year’s award.”   

John Giles, president of the CIM FDA group, adds:

“Charlie Bigham’s is a very worthy winner for this year’s CIM FDA Excellence in Marketing award. We felt that the organisation had remained true to its core values, while developing an excellent brand position and a corporate ethos that hasn’t been watered down by the company’s wide-spread success. The work that Charlie Bigham’s has put in making a product with a strong easily identifiable brand which to stands up against widespread competitors over the past 23 years, shows true determination and great marketing skills.”

Charlie Bigham’s is one of the UK’s most successful independent food brands, producing 13 million tasty dishes every year in its distinctive wooden packs. The brand experienced 18% sales growth in the last year alone and reached 1m households for the first time [source: IRI Total Market 104 w/e 16th February 2019].

The company has two kitchens – one in North London and a second in Dulcote near Wells – where over 40 different recipes are made including its popular fish pie, chicken tikka masala and lasagne.

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For media enquiries

For further information, please contact:

Rhiannon Winfield/Ben Veal      

Highlight PR                       

012245 444268

rhiannon@highlightpr.co.uk / ben@highlightpr.co.uk

For CIM enquiries

James Delves
CIM Head of PR and External Engagement
james.delves@cim.co.uk

Corinne Lavictoire  
PR Executive
corinne.lavictoire@cim.co.uk

Notes to the editor:

To find out more about the Chartered Institute of Marketing Food, Drink and Agriculture group visit: https://sigs.cim.co.uk/food-drink-and-agriculture/

About Charlie Bigham’s

Inspired by his travels and love of cooking, Charlie Bigham set up shop back in 1996 with the sole aim of creating really delicious dishes for foodies – putting in all the care and attention that you would if you were to cook them yourself.  Using top quality ingredients, his goal was to help people steal back some quality time by doing all the dinner prep for them. 

About CIM 

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) is the world’s leading marketing body, with over 30,000 members worldwide, of which there are over 3,000 Chartered Marketers. CIM’s mission is create marketing advantage for the benefit of professionals, business and society with a focus on export, data and skills. It believes marketing is the critical factor in driving long term organisational performance.

CIM provides members and organisations with five key benefits: 

• Partnership – CIM is a professional and organisational partner to support performance and career development
• Education – CIM allows individuals and businesses to continuously upskill
• Information – CIM keeps members up to date with the latest marketing thinking, and keeps organisations at the forefront of practices
• Connection – CIM provides access to services, expertise and peers
• Recognition – CIM is the global benchmark of professional competence

For more than 100 years, CIM has supported, represented and developed marketers, teams, leaders and the profession as a whole. There are 130 CIM study centres in 36 countries and exam centres in 132 countries worldwide. In the last year, over 7,500 people registered at over 230 UK CIM events. Find out more about CIM by visiting www.cim.co.uk