BRC certification success

Now that the busy summer period is over and we have a chance to draw breath, we can tell you that we not only passed our BRC Global Food Standard accreditation, but achieved and “A” grade! Every one of the team pulled together and put in the hours and effort to ensure we performed well, but a special mention must go out to our Operations Director, Jon Purvey, for overseeing the project and steering us to success.

The BRC award is a “Certification to a Global Standard, which is achieved through audit by a third party Certification Bodies, reassures retailers and branded manufacturers of the capability and competence of the supplier”. More information on this award can be found here

Belfast Business Top 50 update

Below is an article about Golden Popcorn's recent nomination for the Growth Award in the Belfast Business Top 50 awards, held last Thursday. Unfortunately, on the night we lost out to Jurgen Prause from Rehab Studios - can't win 'em all! Congratulations to Jurgen and the rest of Rehab Studios.

Basketball Tournament update

Pictures of the recent Golden Popcorn Invitational Basketball Tournament have now been posted! More will be added soon, along with some videos taken of the event.Congratulations to Team Sports Movements, who came out on top after a great day of basketball.

Golden Popcorn would like to thank Tom Newell, Dave Cullen and everyone from Full Court Peace for helping out and giving Golden Popcorn the opportunity to be involved.

Credit for these pictures go to Marc Mulholland Scram Productions and Emily Bango of Full Court Peace

Golden Popcorn shortlisted in the Belfast Business Top 50 Awards

Lucy McDowell, Managing Director of Golden Popcorn has been shortlisted at the Belfast Business Top 50 Awards, to be held tonight at Stormont, Belfast. The event, organised by the Belfast Media Group and which features BT and Grafton Recruitment as major sponsors, pays tribute to the entrepreneurs and business leaders who are role models within their communities, creating wealth and jobs in challenging economic times.

Lucy is shortlisted for the prestigious Growth Award, an award that will go to a Belfast company which has demonstrated exceptional levels of growth in sales over the past 12 months. The remaining finalists for this award are; Anna Burles of Rehab Studio, Conor Daykin of Tasty Foods and Dr. James O’Neill of Corvus Consulting.

http://www.belfastmedia.com/business_article.php?ID=708

Groove in the Grove!

The third Groove in the Grove Summer Fun Day took place in the Grove Playing Fields at York Road a couple of weeks ago with lots of fun and activities for the kids from the local area to enjoy. Golden Popcorn helped in our own small way by donating some tasty popcorn to keep the energy levels up.

Jennifer Crockard of Lower North Belfast Community Council said, “The event was a great success. It was great to see the community having an opportunity to come together at such an event and have so much fun."

She also was kind enough to provide some pictures of the kids enjoying our popcorn!

The Full Court Peace weekend of Basketball

On 18th - 20th September 2009 Belfast Tropics and Full Court Peace in association with Golden Popcorn invite everyone to a feast of basketball. On Saturday 19th, teams from Ireland, England and America will fight it out for the ‘Golden Popcorn Invitational Tournament’ crown with finals starting at 3pm at Queen’s University Physical Education Centre in Botanic Gardens. On Sunday Full Court Peace welcomes NBA Coach Tom Newell to Belfast. Tom will host a coaching camp and a coaching clinic to which everyone is welcome. Please contact Dave Cullen on 0780 444 8625 or email him at d.cullen@qub.ac.uk. Dave Cullen says, “We are delighted to be hosting the Golden Popcorn Invitational Tournament this year and thank them for their support. We are also very honoured to have coaching legend Tom Newell visit Belfast. Tom will bring a wealth of basketball knowledge to which entrance is free and open to everyone of all ages.”

Along with Tom Newell, Northern Ireland national treasure Mary Peters will be in attendance as well as Belfast's very own movie star, Geraldine Hughes (Rocky Balboa, Gran Torino).

Full Court Peace is a basketball programme that engages young adults from the Catholic and Protestant communities in Belfast, forming integrated basketball teams in schools that have no formal relationship. Two teams forged by the Full Court Peace initiative will be facing each other on Saturday just before the final. The event will be a great stage for them to display the skills and bonds they've built over the season. Full Court Peace will be expanding to L/Derry in September.

Stay tuned for more news on this event...

http://www.invitationaltournament.org/

Popcorn to the rescue!

There have been articles in the press recently about the newly discovered benefits of popcorn, and what kind of popcorn manufacturer would we be if we didn't share this information with everyone?!

The discovery came from a study led by Dr. Joe Vinson from the University of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and it seems to indicate that popcorn contains a health-giving substance called polyphenols.

The "science bit". Polyphenols are usually found with the more obvious healthy foods, such as fruit and vegetables. They are essentially an antioxidant and they combat what are called free radicals (chemicals that can potentially damage cells and tissues within the body). So now, in addition to the fibre found in popcorn, these polyphenols have been recognised as the main health benefit to a regular helping of popcorn.

Dr. Vinson went on to say that "We were surprised by the levels of polyphenols we found in popcorn...In my opinion it's a good health food."

(Source: The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday August 19th 2009 - link found here)

Making the headlines...

This may not be news to those who are regular readers of the Belfast Telegraph, but for everyone who missed it, here is Golden Popcorn's Managing Director, Lucy McDowell pictured with Invest NI's Maynard Mawhinney. The picture was published in last Tuesday's issue of the Belfast Telegraph to celebrate the recent increase in our business in the Republic of Ireland market.

Saturday night at the movies

As you may already know, the Féile an Phobail / Festival of the People gets underway next Friday (31st July). For those that are unfamiliar with the event, the festival is a gathering of music, comedy and drama acts, with other exhibitions throughout West Belfast.

One event that we at Golden Popcorn HQ thought was worth mentioning were the drive-in movies at Andersonstown Leisure Centre. Over three nights (starting Saturday 1st August) you have the chance to see Ghost, The Omen or Trainspotting, as well as tasting some of our popcorn from the bags that we donated for one of the nights.

So, if you fancy a good old-fashioned drive-in movie experience complete with popcorn snack, make sure to book your tickets through the festival's website here or by calling 02890 284028.

http://www.feilebelfast.com/

4th July: Pictures from High Street Mall

America descended upon Portadown last Saturday as the Meningitis Research Foundation's 4th July celebrations rolled into the High Street Mall.

Shoppers were entertained by High School Musical Dancers and even Hannah Montana (aka Alex Collett) turned up to help raise over £150 on the day.