Shortlisted For Another FDF Award. This Time In The Branding Category

Angus Coull • July 18, 2024

We are up for 2 Food & Drink Federation Awards

We recently told you we have been shortlisted in the Net Zero Initiative of the Food and Drink Federation Awards. As ifs that wasn't exiting enough we have now been told we have also been shortlisted in the Brand Launch 0f The Year category.


In this category we are up against some huge brand names like Birds Eye, McVities and PepsiCo.


Jade took the lead in the award submissions so a big "well done" to her and the rest of the team. Fingers crossed!


We are delighted with our new branding and we hope you are too, as well as the judges in the awards.


Kilombero, Eswatini Kitchen, Ma’s Kitchen, Ukuva iAfrica, Cape Treasures and many more brand names, mean very little to UK consumers, never mind our original company name Just Trading Scotland (JTS). In order to expand, increase their selling potential, and get noticed by a new customer range, we needed something to change.


For a number of years, our small staff team had been talking about creating one brand, that will compliment one another.  From rice, chutneys, seasoning tubs and more, we felt that this needed to be consistent and look like they are part of a range of products that are notably from the same company.  This is why True Origin was created, to give a cohesive and consistent brand.


From the start, we had to engage a designer, to help us with this process.  Through a recommendation, we used Finlay from Look At That, who were involved in a similar rebranding project by a company we class as a friend.  The design itself, was orchestrated by the full True Origin Team, with the help and input from Finlay, and others that might know more about branding.  We have a strong ethos that the True Origin staff should be at the heart of decision making, therefore the staff are involved within many aspects of the business that you wouldn’t normally see within other organisations.


We were adamant that the name had to have a sense of self explaining, which is why we are proud to have chosen True Origin as our new name and brand name. 


The first product to be redesigned was Kilombero Rice.  This was coordinated and carried out by National Flexible who created the film to our specifications and design.  We worked with National Flexible to make our rice bags recyclable.  They took the time to explain various options that we can use to make our packaging dreams come true.


As an already established fair trade and eco conscious business, we wanted True Origin to have the best start therefore we took the opportunity to make the rice packaging recyclable meaning that our tagline, “food that has true impact at origin”, was being fulfilled form every angle.


Read more about the shortlists here.


The awards ceremony tales place in September.

By Angus Coull March 26, 2025
After six years of leadership, Mary Popple has retired from her role as Chair of the True Origin Board to assume the role as an ordinary board member. She leaves a legacy of steadfast, values-led leadership, resilience and commitment to Fair Trade during a period of significant transition for the social enterprise. First appointed to the True Origin Board in 2013, Mary became the first woman to take on the role of Chair in April 2019. Her journey into the position was shaped by a successful career in the IT industry and a passion for Fair Trade. Mary was an active member of the influential St Andrews Fair Trade group which successfully campaigned to designate the town as a Fairtrade area, and for The Open Golf championship to become the first UK sports tournament to commit to using Fairtrade products. This was complemented with over twenty years’ experience of involvement in other trade justice and development opportunities for women. During her six-year tenure as Chair of the True Origin board, Mary strategically led the social enterprise through a challenging external environment at a challenging time for many small businesses. Less than a year into her new role, the Covid pandemic emerged, causing significant uncertainty for staff, producers and customers as well as disruption in global supply chains. The war in Ukraine and cost-of-living crisis soon followed. Despite the challenges, under Mary’s leadership, True Origin generated over £2.3million in sales income that included £733,000 worth of Kilombero rice from Malawi. That’s equivalent to 245 tonnes or nearly 5 million servings of rice! The sale of the rice provides families in Malawi, one of the least developed countries in the world, with sustainable incomes and better food security. Mary played an instrumental role in rolling out the social enterprise’s rebrand and positioning the organisation as the go-to place for fair and fine products under the new True Origin banner. The product range subsequently increased during her tenure, solidifying True Origin’s reputation in the fine foods market. New products included a range of condiments such the soon-to-become both a customer favourite and one of Mary’s favourite products, sun-dried fig balsamic reduction as well as the popular beer bread of which over 150,000 packets were sold during her term. Mary’s leadership as Chair will also be remembered for her values-led approach, guiding the organisation to decisions with its founding fair trade principles in mind and the interests of producers always at the forefront. She invested time in expanding the board’s skillset and further developing the organisation’s robust governance procedures, upholding True Origin’s commitment to transparency with its stakeholders and leaving the organisation in a strong position to tackle future challenges. She also brought an instinctive knowledge of Fair Trade customers in Scotland and beyond to the role.
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