We feel it is right to explain some developments regarding the (former) British Cured Meat Awards which, as many of you will know we had been asked to be involved in impartially Judging on a purely goodwill basis.
When we were recently informed that Cannon & Cannon were going into liquidation we enquired what that meant for both the imminent Awards themselves and also those people who had entered.
We were told that perhaps we would like to take the Awards on ourselves, but were offered no explanation of how this would work or what had happened regarding the entrants’ status in respect of the liquidation. As such it was, in effect, a suggestion that we might honour Cannon & Cannons commitment, on their behalf and presumably at our own expense, if we wanted to. We are not sure what, if anything, any of the entrants have/had been told by the (former) event organisers.
We have now been informed that someone has bought the assets of the liquidated company and that we should ‘just take the Awards’ ourselves. This is not something we have ever wanted or planned to do. We do not know what the situation is regarding the people who have entered, where they stand or what they have been told by those that were organising the Awards they entered.
Having discussed this latest turn of events as a team here at The Charcuterie Board we recognised that we had several options.
One; We could announce that we no longer appear to have a role, sympathise with the entrants and perhaps help them seek a solution with whoever is responsible, but basically walk away given that we are nothing to do with the organisers (former) company or the actual organising of their festival.
Two; We could seek out the new owners to see if they have plans to honour the Awards scheme they have apparently taken on, but we have had no contact from anyone at all at any point regarding this and have only found out what we have by chasing information out of concern for the entrants situation.
Or Three…
We could step in to support those who have entered as we believe they deserve, bring in a fantastic group of Judges (who all happen to have plenty of time on their hands at present!), put a logistics plan in place to get product to our panels and create an exciting format for some lockdown video sampling of the various product groups and a remote scoring system.
All of which would involve some live tasting action, entrants information and progress being given promotion and a new space on the public area of our website with Trophies, Sponsors and Prizes all currently being sought and organised.
We are prepared to go with ‘Three’ as we believe that everyone who entered the Awards deserves to not only have that entry honoured but that they should be part of the best Cured Meat Awards it is possible to put together, have their fantastic produce considered by a truly amazing array of food industry Judges and be in with a chance to win the credit and recognition that true Champion products deserve!
Please let us know your own thought on this or whether anyone has heard anything formally from the (former) event organisers? If people would like us to step in and make this work then we will.
Subject to peoples opinion we will be in touch with all entrants soon to discuss. Any one interested in Sponsorship opportunities for an Awards like no other that will run over the Summer months and celebrate the amazing British Charcuterie sector please get in touch to discuss.
All the best & stay safe.
The Charcuterie Board team.
