York’s Choc Affair gains regional honours from Made Smarter
Ethically-founded British confectionery business, Choc Affair has celebrated gaining regional recognition from Made Smarter, the movement championing technology and skills, which has created an awards scheme centred on digital transformation, writes Neill Barston.
The initiative has been developed to celebrate manufacturing and engineering companies that have made strides to adopt advanced solutions and focus on decarbonisation and sustainable growth.
Choc Affair (founder Linda Barrie picture) was named among regional winners in the North East and Yorkshire, and will be pitted against winners from the North West, West Midlands, and Humber. These succesful firms from across industry will go forward to select an overall winner in Liverpool on 27 June.
Julian Barrie, Managing Director of Choc Affair, welcomed the company’s honours. He said: “The process with Made Smarter was really easy. The support and financial assistance have been invaluable. We’re excited to scale up our business and secure our future thanks to this investment.”
Commenting on the launch of the awards, Brian Holliday, Co-Chair of the Made Smarter Commission, underlined its value. He said: “The Made Smarter Awards celebrate digital transformation among SME manufacturers, and it is with great pride to see these inaugural awards taking place this year.
“I would like to congratulate all winners and nominees, from across all the regions, as we collectively celebrate the successes the Made Smarter adoption programme has helped support in each of the individual manufacturing businesses.
“The impact of the programme continues at pace with the creation of thousands of new jobs, the adoption of multiple digital technologies and empowerment of future digital leaders with our skills and leadership training.
“We are looking forward to the expansion of the programme into more regions in 2025. This allows us to truly support increasing manufacturing productivity, raising exports through international competitiveness, strengthening UK supply chains and creating new value streams and reducing CO2 emissions.”
