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Pembrokeshire’s Barti Rum wins Gold at Great British Food Awards 2024

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Renowned food expert and TV personality Merlin Griffiths has awarded Barti Spiced Rum a gold Badge at this year’s Great British Food Awards.

The team behind Barti Rum is proud to announce that they have been awarded a gold accolade at the Great British Food Awards 2024 within the spirits category for its spiced rum.

The winning entry from Pembrokeshire, will now be regarded as one of the very best products available within the UK’s exciting food and drink sector in 2024.

Barti Spiced is a rum described by its creators as the most flavourful spiced rum on the market. A symphony of classic spices such as vibrant vanilla, subtle cinnamon and sweet citrus are combined and infused with wild picked laver seaweed, the seaweed serves to lift and enhance the traditional warming taste and make the drink exceptionally smooth. Barti boasts it’s chameleon like ability to be savoured as a sipping drink, while being equally enjoyable and unlost with a mixer or cocktail.

The item was judged by top industry expert Merlin Griffiths who some will know as the head bar tender in Channel 4’s First Dates. Griffiths also runs a chain of successful bars in the North of England.

Category judge Merlin Griffiths described Barti Rum as follows: “What a wonderful spiced spirit Barti is. It has lashings of vanilla, citrus, cinnamon and cloves all underpinned by a subtle umami note from Welsh seaweed. Satisfying both neat on the rocks, and in Daiquiri or Swizzle. Add solid eco credentials and stylish packaging, and we have really fun spiced rum. Truly excellent spiced spirit.”

Having been awarded the highest accolade within the Great British Food Awards 2024, Barti Spiced Rum will now be promoted across Great British Food’s print, online and social channels in celebration of its achievement.

Of the win, Fran Barnikel, managing director at Barti Rum said, “This is an enormous badge of honour for our much loved spiced rum. There are so many wonderful spirit brands in the UK today, to get this recognition nationally is really very special. We’re glad the judges like it as much as we do!”

Barti’s win comes within the first weeks of the product appearing on the shelves of Tesco regionally in Wales. The now award winning Barti Spiced as well as a second product, Barti Cream Liqueur launched in Tesco in September this year and Tesco shoppers cannot get enough of it, so much so that shelves are starting to become sparse while the Tesco supply system struggles to keep abreast of orders to fulfil demand. Paul Johns, store manager inHaverfordwest stated “Sales are excellent! I’m struggling to keep up with it!”

Sources suggest that huge surges in sales in hot spot areas is seriously unusual for a newly listed product, so much so it’s causing the algorithm which generates orders to get confused leading to empty space in store where the bottles should be. Barti Cream has been the main victim of this meaning shoppers are struggling to get their fix of the unique, creamy, plant-based liqueur. Not ideal given the creators behind it struggled to keep at this very same time last year when Barti Cream was initially launched.

Erin at Barti Rum said “People actually call it the great Barti cream drought of 2023, we really don’t want to be in that situation again.”

Barti Spiced, winner of the Great British Food award for “Best Rum” is available from lots of brilliant independent stockists around the country, Tesco and Co-op in Wales, and of course online at www.bartirum.wales for updates and serve suggestions follow @bartirum on social media.

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Bluestone becomes first in Wales to achieve ‘Customer Experience Excellence Mark’

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BLUESTONE NATIONAL PARK RESPORT in Pembrokeshire has achieved a milestone in the Welsh tourism industry, becoming the first business in Wales to earn the prestigious insight6 Customer Experience (CX) Excellence Mark. This recognition highlights Bluestone’s dedication to providing exceptional experiences for guests, placing it among just 15 businesses across the UK to receive this distinction.

In today’s market, customer experience often outweighs price in setting businesses apart. The insight6 CX Excellence Mark celebrates businesses that go above and beyond to make customers central to their operations, serving as a seal of approval from the UK’s leading CX experts.

Claire Lewis, Head of Guest Experience at Bluestone, shared: “Receiving the insight6 CX Excellence Mark is a tremendous honour, reflecting the team’s hard work over recent years to ensure we deliver the best for our guests. Investing in understanding our guests’ experiences has given us invaluable insights to enhance daily operations. When our team is happy, this directly enhances our guests’ experience, and the relationship is truly reciprocal.

“Through this journey, we have come to see our business through the eyes of our guests and actively seek their feedback. Even if things are going well, understanding what our guests truly value helps us make continuous improvements.”

Mel Evans, CX Director at insight6 South Wales, praised Bluestone’s approach: “To achieve CX Excellence, a business must have a strong customer-focused ethos embedded in every decision. Those receiving the CX Excellence Mark carefully design their customer journey—whether online, by phone, or in person—to ensure an outstanding experience, regularly testing and monitoring to remain at the top of their game.”

For more details on the CX Excellence Recognition Scheme, visit www.insight6.com/cxexcellence.

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Seafood carbon emissions profiling tool ‘making an impact across the industry’

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SEAFOOD businesses have been embracing a new tool developed to help them measure and reduce their carbon footprints.

The Seafood Carbon Emissions Profiling tool was launched earlier this year by Seafish, the public body that supports the UK seafood industry.

It works by generating carbon footprints for wild capture and aquaculture seafood products to build an understanding of emissions hotspots in supply chains, allowing positive improvements to be made in line with the UK’s 2050 net zero targets.

The tool is now being used by prominent seafood businesses including Hilton Foods, New England Seafood International (NESI) and Arctic Traders.

At Hilton Foods, who work with leading international retailers and food-service brands, the tool is being used to understand the carbon footprint of seafood products, such as basa fillets, at retail.

Emer Fardy, Group Sustainability & Human Rights Director at Hilton Foods said: “We are proud to have collaborated with Seafish to develop the Seafood Carbon Emissions Profiling Tool which has transformed how we at Hilton Foods assess and manage our seafood environmental impact.

“This tool empowers us, our suppliers, and the wider industry to consistently measure carbon emissions calculations across the sector – a vital step toward achieving net zero.

“The tool exemplifies the kind of innovative collaboration needed to make real progress on sustainability by supporting a more efficient approach to reporting and creating more time for the actions that concretely reduce carbon emissions.”

Last year, NESI committed to setting long-term science-based targets to achieve net-zero emissions by no later than 2050.

To effectively set a target and have it validated with the Science Based Targets Initiative*, NESI has been working to understand greenhouse gas emission footprint and hotspots across their sites and supply chains.

Ruth Hoban, NESI’s Head of Sustainability said: “We are using the tool in collaboration with our strategic seafood suppliers to help us understand and manage the carbon footprint of our seafood supply chains.”

“As part of the Seafood Grimsby and Humber Alliance, NESI has played an important collaborative role in the development of the tool and we intend to embed it into our data collection process to support our decarbonisation journey.

“We have found the tool simple to use.

“The layout of the tool guides the user through the information required in a structured way. We look forward to working with our suppliers on the tool and its outputs as it supports our journey to net zero.”

Arctic Traders, who specialise in the procurement of fresh and frozen seafood for leading European processors, retailers and the food service sector, is using the tool to understand CO₂ emissions associated with transport options, mainly in choosing between road and sea freight of seabass from Turkey.

Seafish’s Head of Responsible Sourcing, Dr Stuart McLanaghan, highlighted the three companies’ use of the SCEPT when he spoke recently at the international Global Seafood Alliance’s Responsible Seafood Summit in St Andrews month.

He said: “The case studies indicate how UK seafood businesses are using the tool to understand the carbon footprint of their seafood products and to inform transitional decarbonisation activities.”

“We’ve created a series of short tutorial videos that cover everything users need to know, from requesting tool access and populating data to interpreting carbon footprint results.

“The SCEPT is designed to be intuitive, eliminating the need for an instruction manual. We’re confident that users can easily get started without the usual software learning curve and there is no need for prior technical expertise in LCA or carbon-footprinting.

“The tool’s integration across UK seafood supply chains is also essential to generate high-quality industry averaged datasets for benchmarking and public disclosure purposes. However, we are only at the end of the beginning. We will continue to evolve the tool to meet industry’s needs and aspirations, and to integrate data reflecting latest scientific advances.”

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Bluestone resort’s air quality ‘among UK’s cleanest’

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MONITORING at Bluestone National Park Resort in Wales reveals the holiday village boasts some of the UK’s cleanest air, prompting the resort to share its environmental practices with landowners nationally and internationally as a model for enhancing biodiversity.

Bluestone’s environmental data, assessed by Health and Wellbeing 360 since August, aligns the resort with top-tier UK air quality sites. Narberth, Bluestone’s nearby town, ranks fifth among sixteen UK rural monitoring locations for low PM2.5 concentrations, showcasing superior air quality in Pembrokeshire.

Bluestone’s biodiversity efforts transform former dairy farmland into rich, diverse ecosystems, a contrast to typical resorts built in preserved natural beauty. Environmental scientist Marten Lewis, formerly of The Darwin Centre, notes the resort’s regenerative practices support carbon sequestration projected to capture 1,591 tonnes of carbon over 30 years.

Lewis emphasises the link between biodiversity and carbon reduction: “Our model increases biodiversity, achieving a 50% net gain, five times England’s required 10% for new developments. We hope Bluestone’s approach inspires similar efforts across the UK.”

Bluestone’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives include a 3.2MW solar farm, transition to BioLPG, electric guest buggies, and Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil for tractors. The resort, employing over 850 people and contributing over £10 million to the Welsh economy, has cut purchased energy emissions by 90% since 2018 and pioneered a world-first initiative to recycle nappies for road surfaces.

The resort’s focus on eco-friendly tourism is evident, as recent data by Mintel shows six in ten travelers prioritize sustainability. Bluestone’s blueprint aligns with increasing demand for responsible travel, offering local communities a model for sustainable growth and biodiversity enhancement.

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