Dunnes Stores has been part of the fabric of Irish life for over 70 years. A family run, privately owned Irish company with almost 15,000 employees and over 150 stores throughout Ireland, the U.K. and Spain.

The Simply Better Team, along with their Simply Better Ambassador Neven Maguire, judge all small producer entries and selected their winner. The successful company will have the opportunity to work directly with the Simply Better Development & Buying team, as well as receiving marketing support to help launch their brand with Dunnes Stores.

"We are delighted to continue our sponsorship of the Small Producer Award this year. It’s been a pleasure working with our previous winners and we look forward to seeing some new and innovative products from producers around Ireland."
Daragh Lawless, Design Brand Manager, Simply Better

For more information on how you could be the 2023 winner of this incredible prize, take a look at the Small Producer Award page.

Over the last 50+ years, Dublin Simon Community has supported people experiencing homelessness. Dublin Simon's services have expanded to assist people across Dublin, Wicklow, Kildare, Meath, Louth, Cavan, and Monaghan. As a community, they support people to exit homelessness, access and retain homes, and rebuild lives by delivering housing, health, and wellbeing services. In 2021, the organization provided services to over 6,600 people experiencing homelessness. Services include emergency outreach and accommodation, medium and high support long-term accommodation, independent housing, tenancy support, treatment and mental health services, as well as personal development such as employability programs, literacy, IT, art, and well-being classes.

Food for Simon provides soup kitchens and around 1,000 meals a day to vulnerable people staying in emergency accommodation, supported housing, treatment and outreach services. We are delighted to partner with Dublin Simon Community’s Food for Simon program to donate any excess products from the judging process to those in need around the Dublin area. At the Irish Quality Food and Drink Awards we are delighted that we could help the community whilst simultaneously reducing our food waste.

Based out of Galway, Ireland, Galmere is an innovative award-winning food producer specialising in soups, sauces, meal bowls, salads and dips. Producing fine food since 1989, they are committed to working with thought leaders and industry experts to create award-winning products for their clients to fit the evolving taste trends of consumers.

Invest NI's role is to grow the local economy, and they do this by helping new and existing businesses to compete internationally, and by attracting new investment to Northern Ireland. They are part of the Department for the Economy and provide strong government support for business by effectively delivering the Government’s economic development strategies.

Retail News, Ireland’s longest established grocery trade magazine, has been reporting on the evolution of Ireland’s FMCG sector for over 60 years, from the birth of the supermarket, through the dawn of discounters and the rise of the value-conscious consumer, carrying valuable information on all aspects of the trade news, sectoral profiles, feature articles, guest interviews and contributors, shop profiles, “who’s who” in the industry, what’s new and much more.

Retail News offers maximum penetration to the multiples, Tesco and Dunnes Stores, discounters Aldi and Lidl, as well as the Independent and Symbol Group retailers, i.e. Centra, SuperValu, Spar, Eurospar, Londis, Mace, Costcutter, XL, Gala etc.

Retail News gives manufacturers, suppliers and wholesalers a platform for underlining to the retailer, the consumer appeal of their products.

We are so pleased to partner with the Irish Quality Food and Drink Awards once again and look forward to seeing this year’s entries!