Dinner Dance

BFFF GALA DINNER DANCE AND AWARDS EVENING 2011

“Dance, Dance, Dance!”

The 2011 BFFF Gala Dinner Dance and Awards Presentation evening was held at the London Hilton on Park Lane on Thursday, 9th June 2011 with over 850 guests gathering to enjoy this popular occasion in the frozen food calendar. Of course, it was not only BFFF members who attended but also the important customers of our industry from both the retail and foodservice sectors.

On the night BFFF President, Nick Shaw, thanked all our sponsors who added to everyone’s enjoyment by sponsoring those elements of the evening so much appreciated by all the companies attending.

DHL Temperature Controlled Distribution sponsored the President’s Champagne Reception and SFC (Wholesale) Ltd. sponsored the Coffee and Chocolate course at the end of the meal. Sam Browne Foods sponsored the entertaining cabaret act – String Mania and Sophistication dancers and Westbridge Food Group provided the popular band, Rollacoaster, who as usual filled the dance floor from start to finish. Iceland also added their support by generously sponsoring our seating brochure, whilst at the end of the evening Aunt Bessie’s provided an early breakfast for everyone.

This year we were delighted to have sponsorship for the Annual Awards for New Products both from the Yearsley Group for the Retail Sector and Partner Logistics UK for the Catering Sector and we thank them both for their excellent support in recognising new product development in the industry. BFFF thanks both Harry Yearsley and Bram Hage and their teams for demonstrating their on-going commitment to the frozen food industry in this way.

Brian Young, BFFF Director-General, announced the winners to the usual blast of attention-catching music, whilst retail and foodservice buyers and product developers had the added enjoyment of collecting several awards for products throughout the categories. All the winners’ press releases and awards photographs can be found here on our website.

Congratulations to all our Gold, Silver and Bronze winners. You deserve this recognition for all your commitment to high standards in product development.

Thank you to all the winners for their positive reactions and although it’s hard to single anyone out, who could fail but be delighted at the reaction of Stephen Drew, Millifoods, when he won a Gold Award in both retail and catering and also Gemma Fraser of Iceland, who accepted the award in great style. We really enjoyed your exuberance

Once the awards presentations were over and the music started, the dance floor was full with members and guests enjoying themselves to current hits and rock anthems from Rollacoaster. We enjoyed tremendously the energetic entertainment by Bogus Brothers who kept the tempo high and dancers going non-stop.

There are many events in the calendar but ours has a reputation amongst the bands and production crew of being the one where there is truly a party atmosphere and an audience that never stops dancing. It was with reluctance that dancing came to a close but the breakfast sponsored by Aunt Bessie’s was very welcome and members enjoyed the opportunity to network with well over 600 guests, who stayed until the end of the evening.

The Dinner Dance always provides a fantastic opportunity to meet with old friends in the industry and BFFF are appreciative of the tremendous support that members give to this event. Thank you to all those members who have written to us with their comments – it’s good to know that you and your customers had such a good time.

The phone has already been ringing and members are eager to attend next year’s function. So put the date in your diary … as usual it’s the second Thursday in June … Thursday, 14th June 2012 … we’d love to see you there!