Dawn Meats and Dunbia, its UK subsidiary have celebrated over 55 award wins in 2024, having secured a series of accolades for sustainability, high quality products, and customer excellence.
The companies stated that the achievements highlight the “ongoing commitment” to the Plan Four Zero, which leads and executes sustainable practices.
In total this year, Dawn Meats and its staff won 30 awards, while Dunbia and its staff won a total of 27.
The award wins for Dawn Meats included:
- The ESG Award at the World Steak Challenge as well as a series of gold, silver and bronze medals;
- The excellence in the green agenda award at the Waterford Business Awards;
- Gold membership status at the origin green awards;
- The Packaging Innovation Award for the company’s Natural PET and Pad-less trays at the Lidl Supplier Awards;
- Graduate Programme of the Year at the Workplace Excellence Awards for the company’s Brighter Futures Graduate Programme.
The award wins for Dunbia included:
- A gold award from GroceryAid, recognised across three pillars – awareness, fundraising and volunteering – and for Dunbia’s participation in a series of activities throughout the year, including fundraising and taking part in GroceryAid Day;
- The Food Integrity Award at the UK’s Food Manufacture Excellence Awards;
- Agriculture manager Leisia Tudor, was awarded the Rising Star Award at the UK’s Women in Meat Industry Awards, which is run by Meat Management;
- Assistant site operations manager at Carnaby, Jonathan Hendry, won the Young Manager of the Year Award at the Meat Management Awards.
Product wins included for both Dawn Meats and Dunbia included the following:
- A combined 22 medals at the World Steak Challenge: Four gold, six silver and 12 bronze;
- A total of 13 accolades at both the Irish and UK Great Taste Awards: One 3-star, five 2-star and seven 1-star;
- Six wins at the Irish Quality Food and Drink Awards, winning five gold and one silver All Year Round categories for lamb, beef and burgers and meatballs;
- Two Best Free From Product wins for ASDA Flavourful Seasoned Lamb Grillsteaks at the Meat Management Awards and ASDA Minted Lamb Kebabs at the UK’s Food Management Today Industry Awards.
Chief Executive of Dawn Meats Group, Niall Browne said: “I am very proud of our team for achieving yet another year of successful award wins at Dawn Meats and Dunbia.
“Working closely with our farmers and suppliers, we continue to deliver top quality products to Ireland, the UK and across the globe.”
Browne said that sustainability is the “central pillar” of the work, along with Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) leadership and company-wide progress towards Plan Four Zero goals.