Topping off a record year for field fare, MD Karen Deans wins the 'Business Woman of the Year Award' at the 2020 Kent Women in Business Awards (KWIBA) ; and is a runner up for the 'Growth Award' ...

KWIBA's top prize goes to a woman who is “not afraid to take a risk” and who “leads with her heart and is backed by a business brain” …

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On Friday 6th March, the cream of Kent business womankind turned out for the eighth Kent Women in Business Awards: a glittering, black tie evening hosted by Hilary Steele at the Mercure Great Danes Hotel in Maidstone.

It was an evening that would see Karen Deans, MD of Edenbridge-based, frozen food specialists field fare, taking a runner up award for the Growth Award and winning the coveted Business Woman of the Year Award for a business over five years old, which pitted her against impressive competition, including runners up Hasmita Reardon (Reardon Properties), Natalie Pieri (Accounting Connections Ltd) and Siobhan Stirling (Sharp Minds Communications).

“I have a fantastic team”, said Karen, as she received the award, “I couldn't do what I do without you … thank you guys”.

As Hilary Steele summarised, however, Karen won for her, “Drive to create a sustainable future, not only for [field fare] but also for their stockists. Karen is constantly looking for ways to develop their offering by monitoring food trends and customer consumer demands. She's not afraid to take risks. She leads with her heart and is backed by a business brain.”

In an evening packed with inspiring stories, some 300 hopefuls were assembled hoping to win across 18 main categories, which included Mumpreneur, PR & Marketing, Contribution to Community, Service Excellence, Start-Up Business of the Year and Women in the Arts. Some had started at their kitchen tables, many were juggling families around building their businesses and most had shown immense courage in risking their security to follow their dreams and to make a difference (for a full list of categories, finalists, runners up and winners, please click here).

“What an incredible gathering of talented, driven and passionate business women” Deans said later of the awards evening. ”On that basis alone, I am honoured to have been a winner.”

“The Food and Drink sector is a particularly exciting one to work in – full of innovation, creativity, vision and integrity – which are values that are at the absolute core of field fare,” she continued, “and at the heart of the specialist producers and independent retailers that we work with. I hope this award helps to highlight our ongoing commitment to supporting them and their incredible products; and that it promotes our continuing sustainability work, which is so important to me. Not least our campaign to encourage our stockists and their customers to avoid packaging and to bring their own reusable containers when buying our packaging-free, loose-serve lines. But, above all it as a chance to thank my wonderful team for their hard work and support.”

Karen Deans has been MD of field fare since 2002. In that time, she has expanded their offer to over 150 lines of premium ready meals, desserts, vegan products and loose serve fruit, veg, bakery and fish products, with seven Great Taste Awards, five shortlisted and runner up Great British Food Awards, two Free From Awards and one Veggie Award Highly Commended, as a testament to the quality of her tireless NPD work; all carefully sourced by her for quality and authenticity from an international roster of the finest specialist producers.

Her Business Woman of the Year Award comes on the back of a record year for field fare, which welcomed 43 new stockists to a total of over 370 farms shops, garden centres and delis across the UK, including a growing swell of zero-waste shops. It saw a 14.84% growth in turnover, a new salesperson expanding reach in the South West of England and an exciting build of their Bring Your Own Tubs initiative, enabling the refilling of customers' reusable containers on Scoop & Serve lines. Introduced by Karen in 2016, it exemplifies the vision, prescience and social conscience that marks her out as that 'business brain with a heart' that so impressed the KWIBA judges.

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editors' notes …

• the team … field fare remains family owned by the second generation Cryer family and based in Kent on Black Robins Farms, a working farm where llamas guard the sheep (yes, really) and chickens regularly strut through the office (true too). MD Karen Deans has been at the rudder for 18 years. Previously, she worked for 8 years for Storsack UK Ltd, an industrial packaging company, then in the oil industry; and finally joined field fare in 2001, becoming MD in 2003, as Richard and Ann Cryer moved towards retirement.
• the history … 40 years ago, in 1977, field fare launched a pioneering idea in independent retail. Visionary in its environmentalism, brilliant in its simplicity, the idea was high quality, fresh fruit and vegetables, frozen direct from the field and sold loose by the scoop from branded freezers; with minimum packaging and waste, maximum nutrient, vitamin and mineral lock-in, zero additives or preservatives required and the flexibility for customers to economically take as little or as much as they wanted. The loose range now numbers over 80 products. In November 2015 it was joined by a premium ready-meal range, which now numbers over 60 dishes, including comfort food classics, international cuisine, desserts-to-die-for and special dietary requirement dishes. All are sold from field fare branded chest freezers through independent retailers
• the nitty gritty … field fare ready meals are made in small batches and frozen down to between -12°C and -15°C, before being stored at -25°C, which means they immediately retain all those nutrients and flavours with no need to add any preservatives or nasties. Products should be stored at a temperature of -18°C, have a 12 – 18 month shelf life and are mainly to be oven cooked from frozen. Ready meal RRPs range from £2.75 for a single portion Macaroni Cheese to £8.50 for a double portion Fish Pie, and in weight from 300g for a single portion Liver and Bacon to 800g for a double portion Shepherd's Pie.
• the charity… field fare is proud to support the wonderful work of FareShare, a charity that redistribute surplus food to their 20 UK wide regional centres and on to partner charities. 28.6 million meals per year are thus provided to people in need. fareshare.org.uk
• the stockists … field fare is committed to supporting UK farming, recognised by hard won permission from the National Farmers' Union (NFU) to use the Support British Farmers logo. They only supply independent stores, mainly farm shops; and 374 stockists include selected Blue Diamond Group stores, Dart Farm in Devon, Millets Farm Shop in Oxon, Preston's Barton Grange Garden Centre, Polhill Farm Shop and Broadditch Farm Shop in Kent, Calcott Hall, Brentwood, Thorncliffe Farm Shop in Huddersfield and Gonalston Farm Shop in Nottingham and a growing band of zero waste, refill shops.

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 Press enquiries, images and sample requests …                                                

Lisa Jones, Dandelion PR                                                                         

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