Innovative Beef Business Wins Inaugural Pitch to the Experts Competition
The team behind a fledgling East Yorkshire beef business is celebrating after winning £10,000 worth of business support in a national competition in Britain. Driffield-based The Yorkshire Wagyu Company was invited to pitch to a panel of judges at The Food Entrepreneur Show after reaching the final of The Artisan Food Trail’s Pitch to the Experts competition.
The Yorkshire Wagyu Company was established by Yorkshire Wolds farmers Jonathan Shepherd and Jim Bloom and is home to one of the biggest herds of full and cross bred Wagyu beef in the UK. Wagyu beef originates from Japan where it is renowned for its exceptional flavour and melt in your mouth tenderness and its high levels of ‘good’ monounsaturated fats that give the beef its characteristic marbling.
Jonathan Shepherd (pictured) comments: “This is a high profile award and we were very proud just to be shortlisted – we never dreamed that we would win! As a new business, winning £10,000 of mentoring plus sales, marketing, finance and legal advice is invaluable and will help us to take The Yorkshire Wagyu Company to the next level.”
The Artisan Food Trail co-founder and creative director of design agency, childsdesign, Graham Childs, says: “We had over 90 entries to the competition and shortlisted six of the most promising food related businesses. Jonathan and his team gave a very polished pitch and clearly demonstrated the potential growth opportunities for their business. The judges all agreed that The Yorkshire Wagyu Company was very different to the other entries and quite unique in terms of its product and business model.”
The Artisan Food Trail was founded by Graham Childs and his wife, Lisa to provide support to artisan food and drink producers throughout the UK.
