8 December 2008

Cornerways wins two Tesco awards

Cornerways Nursery, a tomato grower for international fruit and vegetable supplier The Greenery has won two awards at the Tesco Supplier and Grower of the Year Awards 2008. As well as winning Tesco Salad Grower of the Year, Cornerways went on to win Overall Grower of the Year, at the awards ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

The awards were judged on the grower’s overall performance but especially in the areas of innovation, quality, availability of the product and the investment made on site. The awards were presented to Nigel Bartle, Cornerways manager, by Alex Dower of Tesco.

Cornerways is a business unit of British Sugar and based next to the Wissington sugar factory in Norfolk. Unlike conventional British (and other northern European) greenhouses used for salad crops, the Cornerways greenhouse at Wissington uses no fuel for heating. All the heat needed to maintain a year-round growing temperature of around 20oC is provided by the combined heat and power (CHP) system in the adjacent sugar processing plant.

The CHP system generates over 70 MW of electricity, which powers the factory and around 100,000 nearby homes. It also supplies low-grade heat in the form of hot water to heat the greenhouses and carbon dioxide to boost the growth of the tomato plants.

Peter Williams, Head of Ventures at British Sugar said: “These awards are confirmation that our ‘world class’ approach to business stretches from our environmental practices right through to our exceptional customer service. It is an honour to have been recognised as excellent overall suppliers by Tesco. To be able to deliver a good product in a sustainable way is a great credit to Nigel and his team.”

Kevin Doran, managing director of The Greenery UK, said: “We have worked with Cornerways for over 6 years to supply British tomatoes to the UK market and we are pleased that their product quality and hard work has been recognised in such a meaningful way.”



For more information contact:

Emily Anniss or Mike Holland
Smye Holland Associates
Tel: 01733 564906
Fax: 01733 562051
Email: emilya@smye-holland.com